Cheerfully Mischievous
by Potato Tree
Summary: Cora is from another planet, she's grown up in a place she could never call her own. As an Averian she can fly, and she has certain powers, which has gained her friends in S.H.I.E.L.D. When Loki comes to Earth she's called to help protect it along with the other Avengers. What happens when cheerful, curious Cora meets the God of Mischief? What happens when Loki starts to like her?
1. Chapter 1

**So here's chapter one. You know all the crap about disclaimers and such, so here you go. I do not own any of the characters, nor do I own the storyline, the only thing I have credit for is my character...blah blah blah. Read and enjoy? Leave reviews, I'd like to know if anyone would like me to continue or not. Plus, I'm on summer vacation, so updates should happen often.**

**I also know that some of you are the gods of grammar and corrections and whatnot, but I know that I have probably missed a few things, don't crack the whip on me, or at least don't be that harsh with it.  
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It was a nice night for flying; the air was crisp and cool, which felt nice when it was flowing through her hair and past her face. The moon shone brightly, what few clouds were in the dark sky looked like a painter had gotten lazy with a sponge and just casually blotted them on. Cora flapped her wings powerfully, moving all the faster towards her destination.

Tonight was the night that she was going to be told something not for others ears, or as Coulson had told her, top secret. Humans and their secrets, Averians weren't very secretive at all, yes, there were always the select few of every race that kept secrets like an Earthly child keeps candy, but humans are by far the most secretive. At least that's how Cora saw it; she'd only made it so far through the planets on her class field trip so many years ago.

Also according to Coulson the secret was about something that glowed, which was enough to catch Cora's attention, which Phil knew, she was always the curious type. Once she'd flown into a volcano to see if there were any diamonds in there, a tourist had spewed random information that was very wrong, but Cora didn't know that. She didn't find any diamonds, but it was certainly very interesting in there.

Flying right above the huge research area Cora smiled happily before taking a dive towards the ground, she'd been there once before, so she knew where she was diving. Right to where the information desk was, they promised to have someone there in order to guide Cora to where she was supposed to go, else she would have a little exploration of her own of the whole building. S.H.I.E.L.D certainly didn't want that, even if the one wandering around was one of their own.

Coming to a quick stop right on top of the roof she allowed herself to slip through the first floor of the building, freaking out a security guard and a cleaning lady before moving down through the next floor, there was no one there to freak out, which made Cora a little sad. She liked it when people reacted with funny faces.

She was just about to sink through another floor when she heard shouting, someone was calling her name rather loudly, but she couldn't recognize the voice.

"Cora!" A lady agent rushed down the hall as soon as she'd seen the white girl drop through the floor slowly. "Cora wait!" She said again. This unfortunate human was called Breanna Stroth, she was given the task of making sure the Averian Cora Adams showed up to the correct room. At first she thought the job was an easy task, but that was only hopeful, she heard from Hawkeye that Cora was a handful, if you could even find her that is.

Breanna sighed with relief when Cora stood on the current floor looking at her with a curious stare.

"Hi," she said with a happy smile. Breanna nodded to her before speaking.

"Follow me please. I'll take you to where you're supposed to be," she said sternly. It was everyone spoke here, short, curt, crisp, and unemotional, very boring to Cora who like to put emphasis on things.

"Okay," she said following the agent with a sort of skip in her steps. "Is Phil there?" Cora asked hopefully.

"I don't think so," Breanna said in a cold tone. Cora sighed bored, this agent was no fun, she seemed dead set on walking at an alarmingly fast pace towards their destination, perhaps she had something else that she needed to do.

"That's lame," Cora said looking around the hallway. Phil Coulson was a good friend of hers, they'd met up many times, her favorite was when he was in Roswell. She'd gone there to see what humans thought aliens looked like, which was very comical, he'd been assigned to something there and they met by mistake. Which is how she's gotten into S.H.I.E.L.D in the first place.

Pulling her wings into her back she looked around more, spotting places she decided she would explore later, rooms that looked interesting, and other things like that.

Breanna sighed with relief when they got to the room and she was done with her babysitting, Cora had disappeared twice while they made their trek through the building. She had been informed of Cora's 'powers' but that didn't mean she would get used to them in a few minutes.

"Here you go, right through this door," she said before walking away even faster than she had come.

"Thank you," Cora shouted after her.

Looking back towards the door that she was supposed to go through Cora was almost tempted to turn around and go on her exploring right away, but she knew better than that. Plus if Coulson was not behind the door then there was a good chance that it was Fury, and he did not like it when she was late, he didn't seem to like much of anything.

Walking through the door Cora smiled at one of the guys by the door.

"What's up?" She asked with a smile before she saw something that was glowing.

"Cora," someone acknowledged her but her eyes were fixed on the glowy thing. She walked over to it cautiously, Fury had not caught her yet, maybe she could get away with touching it if she was careful.

"Don't touch that Cora," a voice said from above. With a disappointed grumble she looked up to see Hawkeye watching her like, well, a hawk. She looked up at him with a smile as he shook his head while holding her gaze.

"You're no fun, I just wanted to poke it," she said with a frown before walking away from the glowing thing.

Fury came in from god knows where and gave her a nod, then proceeded to talk to Hawkeye.

"I'll talk to you in a little bit Cora," he said in a strict tone that meant don't touch anything.

"Okay," she said getting a little defensive. They acted like she broke everything she touched, which usually tended to happen, but she wasn't about to admit that. Flapping her wings lightly she flew up to where Hawkeye had once been and looked over the whole place, something was happening to glowing thing, it seemed to be growing bigger and bigger until it ate the tower that was holding it up.

"Whoa," she murmured looking at the mess the thing was creating.

"Oh my goodness, is that a person?" One of the scientists said in dismay, he was almost bald.

There was, in fact, a person that was coming out of the glowing portal, he stood tall and proud as soon as he was clear of the portal.

The first thought that popped into Cora's head was a little embarrassing after she thought it.

'_Handsome,' _was what her brain said. The guy was wearing some cool looking armor, gold and green, matching his eyes quite nicely, with a striking face and eyes that looked down with superiority. The only flaw was that Cora thought his hair looked a little greasy; nothing a shower wouldn't change.

Getting ready to jump down next to Fury Cora heard a voice.

"Stay there," Hawkeye said up towards her. Immediately the strange man's eyes were on her, he gave her a dark smirk before looking back at Fury.

"We have no argument with your people," Fury said looking at the man. Green eyes looked dangerous as he stood there, definitely not human was what came to Cora's mind.

"An ant has no quarry with a boot," the man said with a creepy grin.

Cora looked down towards Hawkeye to see if he was looking at her, which he wasn't, so she quickly jumped to the ground, landing behind him without a sound as she sunk into the ground slightly.

Suddenly there was a wave of blue that shot out towards them, throwing Cora into one of the security guards, she smashed her head against his. With a groan she apologized to the person she landed on before pulling herself to her feet, if only she'd been thrown against a wall it wouldn't have hurt as much, she could've just gone through it.

She held her head, looking up just in time to see Fury go down with a shot of blue.

"What?..." Cora said in slight shock, looking over to Hawkeye to see the man standing next to him. He mumbled something to him before touching him with his staff, something was happening to Hawk, and she couldn't do anything, everything was all happening so fast, blows to the head were bad news. Standing up quickly she ran at the man and kicked him out of the way, not watching what happened to him further but instead looking towards Hawk so see what damage had been done.

"Birdy are you okay?" She asked slapping his cheeks lightly. He didn't respond at all, and there was an eerie blue light that seemed to glaze over his eyes.

"Deal with her," a voice said from her side. Cora looked to see that Greasy head was the one that had spoken, and he did not look happy at all, Cora glared at him before she felt a hand grab her arm. Turning back to face Hawkeye Cora saw that he was about to hit her, what was wrong with him?

"Hey!" She complained when she dodged his first punch. Still unable to get out of his ironclad grip she took the next hit in the stomach, losing her breath she sunk into the ground, avoiding the next blow to her head. "Jerk face," she grumbled before opening her wings and propelling herself into the air above their heads.

A quick glance at Fury told her that whatever he was holding was important, he did give his life for it. The man followed her eyes and he quite quickly lunged for it just as she dove towards it, realizing that he would not beat her to it he sent a blue wave at her, which sent her hurtling towards the wall. He waited for her to hit it, and when she didn't he watched as she disappeared through it.

As the walls began to crumble Loki looked after the white girl that he'd just sent into the wall with a little bit of disappointment. She was a curious creature, when their eyes had first met she did not look away, definitely not human she looked like a priestess of some sort.

When she'd jumped down from the ledge she'd been on her hair cascaded around her, a glance at her strong eyes said she knew there was trouble and that he was the bad guy.

There was something about her that he couldn't place his finger on, something that made him want to know more about her, perhaps he just wanted to rid her eyes of the strength that he'd seen in them. He wanted to see her grovel. Loki was going to break her.

Cora had been thrown through three rooms before she came to a complete stop against one of the walls, having the breath knocked from her lungs she gasped like a fish while she got up and proceeded to run back in the direction that she'd come from.

When she got back to the room half of it was already coming down on her, everyone was gone, even Fury for that matter, so the man wasn't dead, that was good. The room started to fall even more around her before she flew out of the place. Flying around above the collapsing building Cora mourned slightly for Hawkeye, he was gone, he tried to hurt her.

"What an ass," she growled concluding that when he was back to his normal self she was going to punch him in the face as payback. And that other man, the one that sent her through the wall, he was going to get it, is she ever saw him again it would be bad for his health.

Waiting around for a little while longer Cora was about to ditch everything when her cell phone started beeping. If it was up to her she wouldn't have one of those awful cell phones, but since Coulson had insisted that she have one in order for him to contact her she kept one, but that was the only reason.

"Yes?" She answered unsure of who it would be on the other end.

"We need you," Coulson's voice said sternly but friendly.

"Where are we meeting?" Cora asked with a hint of urgency in her voice, she had a knuckle sandwich with Hawkeyes name on it, of course she was going to punch the other guy first though, he was the one that caused everything to happen. With him appearing out of nowhere and all, almost like Fury did.

"You can find him," he said in response to her. She wanted to laugh at him, but she knew that he was serious.

"But I," she started to talk back before he cut her off.

"Cora," he almost sounded like he was shouting into the phone. "Don't get lost," he said before hanging up.

In a slight fit of rage she mimicked what he said, ' don't get lost,' it was inevitable, getting lost was almost second nature for her. If she'd been to the place before it was easy, she could memorize routes like none other, but if she had to follow directions, or no directions at all, she was not going to be able to do it.

Making a steep dive she started flying quickly in a random direction.

"I'm gonna get lost," she cried jokingly into her arm.


	2. Chapter 2

**Second chapter yay...I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me if they like Cora or not, or if the story is any good at all. So please review and such, that would make me a happy camper.**

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Cora flew around the rest of the night before she found any trace of where Loki had gone. You see most Averians are very good at tracking; they all have a gift that allows them to find someone. Now in order for this certain gift to work they need to have something of the person they are tracking, which Cora did not have. Even if she had had something of Greasy hairs she would have thrown it to the ground with frustration, she had the gift that Averians had, to track people, but let's just say that she was not the best of trackers.

With a sudden realization she remembered that Hawkeye was with him, and she had one of his shoes from a few months ago. Why did she have his shoe? Long story short, he was messing with her, she got angry, stole his shoe, and flew off with it.

Flying back to her 'hideout' she grabbed the shoe quickly before finding a quiet place where she could concentrate and use her tracking method properly. Sitting on top of the roof of an old building Cora held the shoe in her hands, running her fingertips over it lightly, catching its scent, which didn't smell the best, and also gathering where its wearer might be.

The unfortunate thing about this gift was that if you were tracking someone and you were close behind them it was easy to spot you; most people say it's pretty cool looking and Cora would agree, but it's not something an assassin would want. For when an Averian is tracking someone and their gift is in action their eyes glow dimly, a calming white light that attracts moths and allows you to see at night.

Putting on her goggles Cora was able to hide some of the light coming from her eyes. For Cora the world looked as bright as day, and she knew where to go, she could see Hawkeye in a lab somewhere, her mind knew where to go even though she didn't have any directions.

Averians call this gift the Uncommon Sight, for it allows one to catch a glimpse of where the person they are looking for is, along with that it create a sort of link between the user and the person, a link that pulls the user to the one they are searching for. Cora could feel the slight tug on her heart and her mind, and that was how she knew exactly where to go, the longing for who she was looking for was usually unbearable until she found the person, or they died.

Soon she was above another research type of building, except that most of it looked deserted, which was strange, most research facilities that Cora had been to were bustling with top secret people with no life other than the building where they worked. A sad existence.

Alighting on the ground she simply walked into the building, as long as she was constantly walking through things no one would be able to really do anything to her, unless they had a scepter that could summon blue stuff that was. Hopefully she wouldn't run into Greasy Head though.

"Oh speak of the devil," Cora grumbled when she caught sight of the man walking down a hall. Turning around quickly Cora tried to sneak back the way she'd come, seeing a security guard made her jump slightly. "Oh goodness," she gasped when the guard caught sight of her.

"Hey!" He shouted at her. She turned to See Greasy Head staring at her with a slightly surprised face before he smirked. "How did you get in here?" The guard questioned lumbering towards her. The other man was walking towards her as well, still with a smirk on his face, but not quite such a fast pace as compared to the security guard. He was taking his sweet time, as if he was a lion that had cornered his prey.

"So uhm," she started to say before looking around a little panicked. "I was just looking for Hawkeye, and now I'm going to leave. Bye," she said before running through one of the walls and disappearing.

Loki was surprised to say the very least, he'd found a suitable place to further the research on the Tesseract, wondering slightly about the winged creature he met, but not expecting her to show up right in front of him. With a faint smile he looking at the security guard who looked flabbergasted at what he'd just seen, Loki looked at him with great annoyance, humans were so dumb. They still didn't even know that there were other living forms in the galaxy; obviously Loki and the winged girl were living proof.

He didn't know what type of creature the girl was, but the fact that she could go through walls was troublesome, how was he going to catch her if she could just turn around and disappear? Thinking back to their earlier encounter it was apparent that she couldn't go through humans, and she also couldn't avoid the power of his scepter. So he was going to have to set a trap for her, which would be fun, and she did say that she was looking for Hawkeye.

Cora felt the pull on her heart getting stronger, Hawkeye was close. Running into the next room she saw him right away, he was sitting down in a chair holding his head.

"Birdy?" Cora asked with a little bit of hesitation in her voice. There was no telling whether or not he was going to be possessed or not, if she was a safe distance away she could still escape.

"Cora?" He questioned looking up. His eyes were squinted in pain, as if he was trying to get around something, trying to overcome it. "What are you doing here?" He asked her, looking into her eyes with concern. Pulling her wings tight against her back she walked up to him cheerfully, he was back it seemed.

"Actually, I don't exactly know, Coulson told me to find you and Greasy Head. So I found you, and I didn't get lost," she smiled looking at him proudly. With sudden realization Hawkeye looked around the room, something wasn't right.

"Cora this is a trap, run," he said before his eyes glazed back over again. Now looking at her coldly Hawkeye tried to grab onto her arm before she ducked out of the way, but she wasn't as skilled in fighting as he was and he quickly had her on the ground coughing and choking on her breath.

"Oh, you're such a jerk," she whimpered trying to get up. Hawkeye grabbed her, restraining her arms behind her back so she couldn't open her wings and get away.

"Excellent," a voice came from behind them. Turning them both around Hawkeye looked at Greasy Head with an indifferent stare.

"You're mean," Cora said staring him right in the eyes, her voice sounded serious, but the man only chuckled darkly.

"Hello little creature, my name is Loki, I will soon be the God of this world," he said with a smirk. She just looked at him bored, but at least now she knew his name, wouldn't have to call him Greasy Head anymore.

"Hi," she said looking away from him. With a sudden flare of anger Loki grabbed Cora's chin and forced her to look at him, his eyes slightly wild looking, Cora stared at him a little scared, this guy was bad news.

Loki chuckled at the girl, seeing fear in her eyes was something he craved, she was disrespectful to him, he was a God, gods are not to be treated like that, Gods are not to be ignored.

"Tell me your name," he said calmly to her, all traces of anger gone.

"Cora," she said looking up at him defiantly. She didn't like him.

"How do you like Earth Cora?" He asked letting go of her chin and standing up tall, towering over her small height. He knew that she was of another planet; no human had wings and could go through walls.

"It's okay, most humans are fun," she said happily. "Do you like it here?" She looked up at him curiously. Loki scoffed and looking away from her, how could she like such a weak race such as the humans.

"Humans are weak, soon they will look to me as their king, their God," he mused turning around to look at her again. "You could join me, you're not human, you are a superior being," he said searching through her eyes for some sort of emotion, there wasn't one.

"To be honest," she said looking right at him with strict determination in her eyes. "That sounds kind of boring. Why would you want to rule over a world? You can't control them, there will always be riots, fear is not the same as respect and admiration." She said with a glare. "You won't succeed, you will fall, and no one will catch you," she said looking at his eyes sadly.

With a growl he nodded at Hawkeye who hit Cora over the head, knocking her out she slumped to the ground, looking even more innocent than when she was talking to him. The girl was interesting, she cared so much for the humans it almost disgusted him, but there was something else in her that he wanted. When she was speaking he had an urge to control her, she was beautiful, smart, and mysterious, he didn't know what to expect from her, and it was exciting.

When was the last time he felt excited for someone?

Loki sent Hawkeye away before he picked Cora up gently, her wings pulled to her body slowly, she was very light, but then again she would have to be, to be able to fly so quickly. Her skin felt cool to the touch, very pale in comparison to his, as pure looking as snow, Cora was a divine creature. Walking down a few hallways he finally set her down on a cot next to where he stood overlooking the progress that was being made on the Tesseract.

With a small groan Cora opened her eyes groggily, her head hurt massively. Even more so than the time when she'd flown into building without remembering to go through it. Last she remembered Loki was angry with her response to his proposal to turn against the humans, and then it was lights out, she didn't even get to tell him that his eyes were cool looking.

Glancing around the room Cora gathered that there was no one else in the room with her, so she checked her pocket, which were awesomely hidden in her dress, for her cell phone, it was there! Good thing Loki wasn't familiar with Earthly inventions else he might had taken it from her, though now that she thought about it, calling someone really wouldn't do her any good.

Without a second thought she called Coulson, who picked up the phone on the second ring.

"You got lost didn't you?" He asked in a flat tone, so he really hadn't had any faith in her.

"No, I found Hawkeye, and Loki," she said in a whisper looking around frantically for people to pop up. "But they captured me," she murmured standing up slowly.

"Where are you?" He asked urgently. Cora froze for a second, she didn't know where she was at all, man she was worthless. Something flew past her face suddenly, snatching the phone from her hand and impaling it against the wall, immediately Cora locked eyes with Hawkeye who was staring at her while he got another arrow ready. Cora's eyes widened fearfully, Hawkeye was not someone you get angry with and then leave alone, especially if he wasn't on your side. It wasn't easy to scare her, but when she was injured her powers were slightly unpredictable, sometimes she could go through walls and sometimes she couldn't.

As age goes for Averian standards Cora was still considered a child, as Averians get older their powers are a lot easier to control, but Cora was still in the beginning stages of development. Most of them died in this stage of their life because of their inability to determine what they can handle and what they cannot, but Cora didn't know this. She just knew that sometimes she could control herself like a boss, and then other times she walked into walls like a bird does to a glass window.

"Look who's awake," Loki said from her right. She turned to him quickly, wide eyed and with a slightly unreadable expression on her face. He smirked at her and started to encroach upon her space, she backed up against the wall trying to get away from him.

"Your invading my bubble, the bubble is in danger," she said looking up at him as he approached. "Oh, you popped my bubble," she said sadly frowning at him. Loki didn't exactly understand what she was saying, but it was fun watching her tremble underneath his gaze, reaching out to touch her cheek gently Cora watched his hand as it approached.

Leaning against the wall as much as she could Cora felt her body begin to go through it, with a small surprised gasp she fell through the wall and did a small backwards summersault as she fell into a random hallway.

"That was lucky," she laughed shortly before getting up and starting to run down the hall. All she had to do was get outside, then she would find Coulson and see what was going to happen and all that jazz.

"Going somewhere?" Loki questioned from in front of her.

"What the heck?" She shouted at him. He'd just popped up out of nowhere, now Fury really like to do this, but Loki seemed to have mastered it.

"You dare think you can run away from me?" He questioned looking down at her.

"No?" She said nervously not knowing what else to say. This guy seemed to have a few bipolar issues, seemingly happy for a little while, and suddenly turns all angry and caught up in his hair.

"Good answer," he smirked darkly. She shrunk under his gaze, why did he make her feel like this? She felt so small and insignificant when he leered down at her, and then when he just smirked like he knew all about it, what a bugger.

"Can I leave?" She asked, it was worth a try. Loki laughed in response to her; did she really just ask him that?

"No," he said curtly. She nodded and looked away from him, it was understandable and all that, but she didn't really like him, not even a little bit.

"Well I hate you," she said looking away from him grumpily. Loki looked at her angrily, such impudence. Grabbing her shoulders he slammed her against the wall roughly, glaring down at her with an evil snarl.

"You do not know how easily I could end your life, show me the respect I demand," he said with venom in his words. He didn't really want to hurt her, but if this was the only way she would listen it was necessary, for she was proving hard to deal with.

"So kill me," she said looking at him coldly.

"You are not afraid of death?" He questioned a little surprised, most other creatures would grovel at his feet and beg to be spared, but she seemed to welcome it, and there was something different about her eyes. They'd lost the playfulness that he'd seen when she'd first awoken, now she was serious, and he liked it.

"I'm going to die someday, the only thing that changes is the place," she said looking at him with a smile breaking out to her face. "You'll die eventually as well," saying that she shrugged her shoulders and looked away from him.

At this comment Loki looked at her sharply.

"We'll see about that," he said calmly letting go of her. "Follow if you want to eat."

"Food sounds good," she murmured following after him reluctantly. She'd tried to fade through the wall Loki had her against, but her mind couldn't focus, there was an unexplainable feeling in the back of her mind. She didn't know what to think of it, probably just pain; they did hit her in the head.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's the third chapter, yay...Just saw the movie again today, realized I messed a few things up, so I apologize for that, my bad. Anyways...enjoy this chapter!**

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It had been a few days since Cora had been captured by Loki; her going through objects power was still spazzing out slightly, although today was the day she was finally getting the hold on it. She hated to admit it but Loki was okay to hang out with, if you could call what they were doing hanging out. When they were together Cora was the one that did most of the talking, always spewing random information that no one seemed to care all that much about. There were moments when Loki wanted to get rid of her; there were many of those moments, but at the same he couldn't get enough of her. She made him feel, dare he say it, not alone.

It sickened him to think that he actually enjoyed her company at time, besides the fact that she was random, way to full of energy, disrespectful, and totally oblivious to things. He almost felt like he was taking care of her, one might do this with a child. There was one question that he wanted to ask her still; hopefully she would be inclined to answer. He wondered if he would see her serious side again, for he found that it was very interesting.

At the moment Cora was sitting across from him, munching on a carrot, she'd already told him it was boring at least three times.

He was just about to ask her when she beat him to it.

"When are you going to let me go?" She questioned looking at him with a silly questioning face. For a moment his face had a dark smirk on it, the real reason he was keeping her was because he was interested in her opinions and beliefs. There was something else about her as well, something that drew him to her, perhaps it was her peculiar white hair and grey eyes, or perhaps it was the fact that it took a lot to rattle her brains.

"I was actually thinking about using you for a trap," he retorted smartly, with a cruel tone of voice. "How quickly will your friends come to rescue you?" He asked her with. Cora looked at him with a frown, and shook her head slowly.

"I thought you were cooler than that," she murmured looking down at the table. There was a piece of cake that Cora had insisted Loki eat, even though he hadn't touched it, Cora had plans for it.

"So tell me," Loki demanded with a fierce voice. "How did you come to live on this planet?"

"That's what you want to know?" She questioned looking at him with a shocked face. "That's so boring, jeez, everyone knows that story," she said tilting her head and giving him an unhappy look.

"Well, I do not, enlighten me," he growled, tired of playing this sort of game with her.

"Okay, fine," she said leaning back slightly. "I am an Averian from the planet Ivias, in the Green Gas Galaxy. When I was ten years old my school went on a field trip, we planned on going to many planets, Earth was number four on the list. If you don't know already, I get lost pretty easily," she said with a small laugh. Of course Loki knew, she'd been following behind him just yesterday when he'd completely lost her, she'd been looking at a room with some weird equipment in it. "When we got to Earth we had to hide our wings, and we weren't allowed to fly, because humans don't know squat diddly about what's out there. We went to a park, and I got lost right away, I spent all day looking for the class, but I couldn't find them. And when I went to where our ship was, it was already gone," she said softly.

Cora looked away from Loki, staring off into the distance, and for a few seconds she looked so fragile that Loki almost wanted to reach out and touch her, but he caught himself. How could he think that of someone that he'd just met?

"So you must have been pretty worthless then," Loki said with a dark smirk. Cora's head snapped toward him, a dark glare in her eyes, before it turned into a weird smile.

"Must have been," she laughed. Loki was slightly thrown off by her attitude, how could she be so optimistic when everything bad seemed to happen to her.

"Do you not care that your people have abandoned you? Do you not care that your parents never asked where you were?" He questioned with venom in his words, parents were a sore topic for him.

"I don't," a smile broke onto her face as she said this.

"How dare you lie to me, soon I will rule this planet and you along with it. I should cut out your tongue for such an attitude as yours, it sickens me," he growled commanding her attention. He didn't know why he was so angry with her, maybe it was the fact that she denied her own expression of feelings.

"You know," Cora started looking him in the face with a serious expression. Loki's attention was on her quickly, he knew that he'd said something correctly when he got that look out of her. "This cake looks really delicious; I bet you've never even had cake before," she said picking it up and looking at it. Loki stared at her strangely, how quickly the conversation could change, and she always had room for a random comment.

"I don't see how this is relevant," he said casting his eyes away from her face. He waited for her to say something else, but she didn't, so he didn't look back at her, he didn't have to indulge her with his presence, she should be honored to be in the company with a god.

"LOKI!" Her shout caused him to turn immediately in her direction, but here was something else waiting for him there. Cora had waited until Loki was distracted, then she got his attention, quite harshly, before smashing cake in his face.

"You vile little creature!" He shouted at her. She only looked at him with a smile, which set his blood on fire even more, she would pay.

"How does the cake taste?" She questioned licking some frosting off her fingers. He glared with such hatred one would think she'd just killed his best friend, if he had one that is. Reaching for her quickly, Cora ducked and jumped backwards a few feet, he growled at her and grabbed at his scepter.

"You do not know what you've done," he said darkly, as if those words were the flames that would ignite bombs.

"Sounds bad, I think I'm going to skedaddle now," she said with a nervous laugh. Loki made a move to attack her before she opened her wings and disappeared through the ceiling in a small gust of wind. "Bye," she managed to say before the room went silent.

Shouting in frustration Loki looked to where she once had been, he hadn't planned to let her escape so soon, or at all for that matter, but he didn't have time to look for her right now.

"Just wait till I get my hands on you," he threatened her quietly.

"What's that?" Steve Rogers, otherwise known as Captain America, questioned looking out into the sky. He and Bruce banner had just met, and were now looking into the air as Natasha, Black Widow, shrugged before whispering something under her breath.

The thing in the sky was getting closer and it appeared to have wings, as it got closer they could see that it looked more like a girl with wings more than anything else. She came in fast, landing with a smile towards Natasha and saluting Steve with a cheerful grin.

"Why hello there!" The girl said with a small jump.

"This is Cora Adams, a somewhat valuable agent of S.H.I.E.L.D," Natasha introduced the girl who frowned at her comment about being almost valuable.

"Ma'am," Steve nodded towards her, Banner nodded at her as well.

"Cora this is Captain Steve Rogers and Doctor Bruce Banner, they're both here for the response team," she explained as Cora's eyes lit up slightly at the mention of who they were.

"Awesome," she cheered folding her wings neatly against her back.

"You might want to go inside; it's going to be hard to breathe soon," Natasha said stepping away from them.

"Is Tony going to be here as well?" Cora questioned following the red headed agent.

"Coulson said he's going to come," she explained shortly.

Cora smiled a little larger; she'd met the Tony not too long ago and given him a run for his money on how annoying a single person can really be. Needless to say she won that competition. She liked the man, he was like an older brother to her, not that she actually knew what that was like, but it was fun to hang out with him. She even got to meet Pepper.

"That reminds me, I have to tell Coulson something, where is he?" She asked looking back as the ship began to take flight.

"You'll find him eventually," Natasha said with a slight smirk towards the girl. She knew that Cora was more than likely going to get lost before she even saw a glimpse of Coulson.

Instead of trying to find her own way around the ship Cora decided it better to just follow behind everyone else.

Skipping around happily Cora felt accomplished because she'd found Coulson and told him that she didn't get lost; she did in fact find Loki. Which he then shot back in her face because she did get captured and failed to inform them of anything that had to do with the Tesseract, and instead of having a comeback ready for him she just stuck out her tongue and ran out of the room.

She wondered past Banner's lab to see he was busily working on something that had to do with computers and science, not Cora's thing at all, but that didn't stop her from going in and saying hi.

"So what does all this do?" She asked, offering him a cookie that she'd filched from the kitchen. Funny how she could find the kitchen and nothing else that she needed to. He didn't take the cookie.

"For now I'm just getting it all set up, but hopefully it will allow me to find the gamma rays that are related to the Tesseract, which will, in turn, help find it," he explained trying to dumb it down so the girl would understand it.

"Right," Cora said slowly. She really hadn't expected to understand what he said, but since he seemed to be speaking plain English it was slightly easy to know what he meant. "So what's your favorite color?" She asked looking up at him with a bright smile. This time she placed the cookie in his hand so he couldn't refuse it.

"Green," he said with a playful grin.

"Huh," she mused. "Never would have guessed." They continued to talk for a few more minutes before she started saying something about Fury, about how she hadn't reported to him yet. So she went on her way leaving a chuckling Banner shaking his head.

She walked into the control room just as they'd gotten information on her greasy haired friend Loki, hearing that he was in Germany, Cora started to get a little excited about going into battle, she wanted some payback.

"I want to go," she said happily, raising her hand like a child. Fury looked at her like she was a giving him a headache.

"Cora," he said her name with a pleasant tone. "No," he said coldly before turning back around to look at Steve.

"But he gets to go, and he doesn't even have a beef with him," she protested looking at Steve.

"No," he said again walking away from her; she followed him about to say something before he looked back at her sharply. "Do I need to repeat myself?" it wasn't a question; it was a demand to shut up. With a frown Cora made a face at him before turning around and running through one of the walls.

Fury sighed darkly before looking at Steve with a bored expression.

"Make sure to look after her," he said with a sigh.

"But you just said she couldn't go," he said looking to where she had gone.

"She'll be there," he said with great certainty. She never listened to him when it came down to something that she could help with.

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**Oh my goodness, whats that? It appears to be the review button, you should use it, I like to know what people think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four, enjoy the reading.**

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Cora followed behind the plane that carried Steve and Natasha; it was night time so she'd made sure to bring her night goggles, so she would be able to follow them even in the darkest parts of the sky.

Now you might want to ask how she could possibly even attempt to keep up with a jet that could fly faster than anything else in the sky, well here is something about Averians that you might not know. Different colored wings mean different things, different abilities. Brown wings can be used both for flying in the air, and underwater, whereas grey wings are for more powerful flyers, some say they can fly through tornadoes. As said before White wings are a little more uncommon, they are lighter and able to fly through the sky faster than anyone else, she'd already flown faster than a jet before. Afterwards she'd gone directly to Tony Stark to ask him if he could fly that fast, to which he replied, yes.

She actually found herself flying slightly through the jet as it had a more constant speed than she did, so she had to slow down, which would keep her from getting lost if she somehow got away from it. As they got closer Cora could see where they were going so with a sudden burst of power she flew past the jet and into the open sky. Quite quickly Cora tired; an Averian can only keep up that speed for so long without getting weak.

Hearing screams from in front of her Cora dropped from the sky, landing in front of Loki just as he was exiting a very luxurious looking building, maybe it was a museum.

"Look whose come to save the day," he said with amusement in his voice.

"Well hello there," Cora said with a small smile. Loki had grown tired of her always happy face, and always cheerful attitude, he was going to break her of it. He faintly remembered how childish she was during the time that he'd had her confined, she was almost intriguing to be with, full of surprises, but children do need to be disciplined.

With a sudden lurch forward Loki made a jab at Cora, who dodged it and threw her own punch at Loki, but he was far ahead of her, kicking her in the stomach and throwing her into the ground swiftly.

"Does your smile falter?" He mocked as she coughed for air to fill her lungs. "I find you interesting," he said with a cold laugh. "Don't you feel lucky?" He spat out at her.

Dragging herself to her feet Cora glared up at Loki, who just simply smiled down at her, she was already tired from the flight, there was no way she could have won the fight, she knew that, but there was nothing stopping her from trying.

"Oh, I think we're having fun," he said turning around and launching a wave of blue energy at her. Covering her face with her arms she was thrown backwards harshly, skidding to a stop several feet away, she didn't move. "Ouch," he said with a sneer before turning back to the crowd of people rushing around.

With a pound of his scepter he had new found armor on him, glowing gold as if he already was a kind, a god, adorned with gold and a crown.

"Bow down to me!" He shouted at the crowd.

Cora had blacked out for a little bit, coming to with a gasp, she groaned in pain and lifted her head to see Steve in his Captain America suit, and he was kicking butt. Until he wasn't, but that was okay because now there was someone else who finally decided to show up.

Standing up quickly, which Cora immediately regretted, she watched as Iron Man flew in and started bashing Loki around, which she was happy to see, since she hadn't been of any help whatsoever.

Waiting until they seemed to be finished Cora limped over to them, with a slight skip in her step, just because she was injured didn't mean that she couldn't be happy to see her friend.

"Hi Tony," she said with a big smile.

"Hey Cora," he said giving her a quick glance and then looking back again sharply. "Why are you here?" He said looking at her harshly, though you would have to redefine harsh as he did have his mask on. "You let her come?" He asked Steve with a glare.

"No, of course not," Steve said sternly towards her. "She came by herself," he said getting Loki to his feet roughly.

"Course you did," Tony said rolling his eyes. She gave him a smile that said, 'yes I did come, and I'm not sorry, but I do feel bad that you caught me.' "You, jet, now," he said pointing to the plane while staring her down in his very metallic suit.

"Okay," she said in a small voice. She hadn't expected to see Tony here, she was happy to see him, but he was always very cautious of her, he didn't let her do anything after that one accident. Now you want to know what happened don't you?

Loki looked at Cora with a sickening smirk, which Steve saw and immediately shoved the man into the jet with enough force to make him stumble.

Cora sat on the other side of the Jet away from Loki, he could throw her around so easily, just looking at him made her think of how he'd knocked her breath away and made her gag. He locked eyes with her and grinned like a sly cat, she looked away a little scared, before jumping when the jet shook from the beginnings of a storm, even Loki seemed a little off.

"What's a matter, afraid of lightning?" Tony asked in a sarcastic manner.

"I'm not too fond of what follows," he said with a slight frown.

Soon after he said that the jet fell a few feet as it seemed that something landed on top of it, and with a metal tearing screech someone jumped into the jet. He had blonde hair and a cape, which Cora had to admit, was dorky, but awesome. Tony went after the man but he hit him back with seemingly no effort at all before he took a hold of Loki and got away.

Tony and Steve looked after them.

"You. Stay here," he said towards Cora sternly. "If I see you down there, something bad is going to happen to your candy stash," he said turning towards the back of the jet that was open. Cora frowned angrily before sitting back down and looking towards Natasha who was shaking her head at her as well.

"Tony we need a plan of attack," Steve said.

"I have a plan, attack," he said before jumping out the back and flying off.

"Captain?" Natasha questioned as Steve got a parachute.

"Someone has to watch them," he explained before he was off as well. Cora looked away disappointed, knowing that any argument that she threw out there would get shot down immediately by Natasha, who didn't agree with her fighting either.

"So what do we do?" Cora asked with a slight bit of hope in her voice.

"Wait for them to get back," Natasha said looking back at her as she leveled out the jet easily.

"Aw, that's so boring!"

"Hi Bruce!" Cora said with a cheerful grin. Running up to where the Doctor was, they'd gotten Loki back, and also gained one cape wearing, hammer bearing God of lightning. Cora and Thor had gotten along almost instantly; he thought of her as a child and treated her like one, which meant that he seemed very interested in the things she said. She complemented his outfit and he liked her wings, it was going to be a great friendship.

"Hello," he said calmly looking at her with a slight sigh of relief. When he found out that she'd left to take on Loki he was a little worried, she was of another planet and all, but she was really still just a kid, a good kid. "What happened to your arm?" he asked looking at the makeshift bandage that Thor had made for her. She'd gotten a bit of skin scraped off her arm when she skid on the concrete after Loki pushed her back. Tony gave her a small lecture about how he could handle everything because he was _so_ awesome and that she was not allowed to fight unless someone was there to help.

"Someone threw me across a courtyard," she said simply. "It hurt quite a bit," she nodded thinking back to it.

At that moment Loki was escorted by a bunch of agents down the hallway, taking his sweet time to smile at Bruce and Cora as if he was mocking them. Bruce looked at him with slight wonder, taking off his glasses and staring after the green clothed man who called himself a god.

"He's a jerk," Cora said looking after him as well. Bruce looked down at Cora with a soft smile, he had a few more colorful words in mind.

"So he did this then?" Bruce questioned looking at her arm.

"Yeah," she said calmly. "It's okay, I heal faster than humans do," she grinned like a cheeky child before running off in search of someone else to talk to.

"I bet you do," he said under his breath with a small chuckle.

"Hi guys," Cora said with a smile as she walked into the control room. Sitting down at the table and pulling out a juice box and a bag of cookies. "Want one?" She offered Thor and Steve. Steve shook his head politely while Thor shrugged and grabbed one from her.

"This cracker is very sweet," he said munching on it and reaching for another one. Cora resisted the urge to laugh when he called it a cracker; at least it was shaped like a cracker.

Soon everyone came into the room to discuss the Loki matter, which was about the time that Cora ignored most of the conversation, she didn't care for Loki, Thor was way cooler than his brother and could probably take him on any day. Coming back into the conversation halfway through Cora caught the tail of it.

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha said in a cold tone.

"He is adopted," Thor said easily enough. Cora almost laughed again, holding it back was hard as she looked around at everyone who didn't nearly as amused as she was.

"I thought it was funny," she said looking down at the table, before putting her head in her arms like she was going to fall asleep, which she did. After they finished Tony and Bruce took Cora to her room before heading off to the lab, they'd found out that they both spoke the same language in the manner if being smart.

As they walked away from Cora's room she had a dream, not a very prophetic dream, it wasn't even scary, but she did see Loki in it, and he didn't look all that bad, he actually looked a little sad. _Loser, _had been her first thought until she felt a little bad for him, everyone deserves a second chance right? When she woke up, she'd decided that she would go talk to him again; he did kill a lot of people, and Cora disagreed strongly with killing, but maybe there was something she could spark in him that would ignite a fire. Even though she had to admit that it was a long shot and he might be just a mean greasy haired god from outer space.

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	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for the reviews, i adore you who have written them. Here is chapter five, enjoy reading.**

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Cora woke with a gasp, she dreamed of that accident again, the accident that Tony had saved her from, but this time it was different.

A while ago, when Cora had only just began to know Tony and get along with him, she had a fight with someone in the city, a very skilled fighter that seemed to have some sort of old conflict with Tony was planning on attacking Pepper. Cora was the only one there so naturally she defended Pepper, the fight dragged on for a little bit, but Cora just wasn't good enough, and the man captured her.

Now there's something that should be explained about Cora, when she still lived on her old planet she'd tried to go swimming, a seemingly simple task, but she didn't know that Fast Averians sink. White wings aren't meant for the water, they got her out quickly, but she's always hated it since then.

The man had found out about her fear somehow, and dumped her in the water as a way to get Tony to come out and fight. What he didn't know was that Tony was getting his new weapon ready and was behind him not twenty seconds after he'd dumped Cora, Tony took care of him in seconds, but Cora was sinking fast.

It scared her, she couldn't breathe, the darkness swallowed her, pulling her into the depths of the water where no one would find her, reaching for the surface her wings felt like weights on her back, dragging her back. It was when she was just out of breath that Tony had gotten her, she was okay, but nightmare had plagued her dreams since. Sometimes she would dream about happy things like a candy buffet, or free dragon rides, but usually it was this dream, and the night before had been no exception.

The dream started and she was already sinking, there were more bubbles than she remembered, but the weight on her chest still felt the same, as if someone was putting weights on it. She'd looked around frantically and reached towards the surface, clawing at the water like a cat at a scratching post, but there was nothing that was going to help her. Closing her eyes and opening them to the same murky water she screamed for someone to help, to pull her out, anyone.

Suddenly there was a hand that grabbed at her arm, clasping onto her wrist and pulling her towards the surface, Cora looked up at who she might identify her savior as, the sun seemed to blind her for a few seconds. When she could finally make out who it had saved her Cora gasped and woke with a start.

It was Loki.

With a sudden slam of the door Thor was in the room looking at Cora worried, she was shaking slightly, normally when she woke from the dream she couldn't breathe for a few minutes, but it was different today.

"Are you unharmed?" Thor asked in that weird English of his. He grabbed her hand gently, feeling how cold she was, he looked a little worried.

"It was just a dream?" Cora said taking a shagged breath before looking at him. "How did you know?" She questioned him. She wondered slightly how he'd ever thought breaking into her room was a good idea, did manners mean nothing to him?

"You were screaming, I thought you were hurt," he said letting go of her hand and kneeling next to her.

"I've never done that before," she said with a little bit of a dull tone. She'd heard that you could cry in your sleep, she'd never done it, but she'd never heard of someone who screamed in their sleep. Course she wouldn't know if she'd never done it before because she was pretty deaf when she was sleeping, it would explain why there were never any birds to wake her up in the morning. Her screaming probably scared the crap out of them.

"You are sure your fine?" He asked her again, this time looking at her injured arm, which was healing quite quickly.

"Yes," Cora said with a cheerful smile. "Thank you," she mumbled a little shyly. It was weird having someone checking up on her, no one had ever done it before, of course there was Tony, but he was more like an older brother, he was supposed to care. But Thor, he didn't have any reason to.

With a dorky looking smile he walked away, somehow putting the door back into its usual closed position, any normal person wouldn't be able to use the door ever again, so it was a good thing Cora could just go through it.

"We'll be good friends," she said happily. Quickly changing into a new dress, which seemed to have been prepared for her, and slipping on her messenger bag she was out the door in a flash.

Running to the kitchen first she snagged a bunch of juice boxes, apparently some agents liked juice boxes or something, because there were a lot of them. Or perhaps they were for her? She also grabbed some sandwiches and a box of cookies.

Feeling the weight of food in her bag was always a pleasant feeling, it meant that she could snack and work at the same time, if what she did could qualify as work that is. Running past the lab she caught sight of Tony and Bruce, working away at something that looked slightly interesting to her, but more confusing than anything else.

"What cha working on?" She asked walking up behind Tony.

"Arm, show me it," Tony said motioning for it. She begrudgingly showed it to him, he nodded approvingly, she did heal pretty fast. "Thor said you were screaming in your sleep, did you have that dream again?" He questioned looking at her seriously.

"Ah," Cora gasped grumpily. "What a tattle tale," she grumbled looking at the ground. Maybe he wasn't going to be the best of friends; maybe he would be a weekend type of friend.

Bruce wasn't the prying type, so he just left it alone and told her what they were doing, and then chuckled lightly at the expression that she gave them.

"What does that mean?" She asked afterwards. Tony looked at her like one might look at a child who was trying to understand the mechanics of an airplane.

"It helps us find the glowing thing faster," he said with a small smile.

"Oh," she said looking around at everything. "You have fun with that," she said before turning around and getting ready to leave. "Wait," she turned back around and rummaged in her bag for a little bit. "Here you go, stay healthy," she pointed at the both of them sternly. She'd handed both of them a juice box, a cookie, and a sandwich, before she skipped out of the room without a care in the world.

"Good kid," Bruce said with a small laugh while looking at the juice.

"Yeah," Tony murmured. "You know she's actually older than us, her race ages different compared to humans, apparently she's still considered a child, so I guess it works out fine." He said with a little bit of a sarcastic tone, stabbing the straw into the juice box.

"That's odd," Bruce said before going back to work.

Running past Steve Cora stopped him for a second.

"Here you go, stay healthy!" She said handing him a juice box, a sandwich, and a cookie, just as she had given Bruce and Tony. Even though Steve had refused the cookie before she was bent on making him eat one, who didn't like cookies?

"Thank you?" Steve said with a slight question in his voice. She then watched as she continued to skip down the hallway singing something about it be a lovely day in the neighborhood.

Now she wanted to search for Loki, which Tony, Fury, Coulson, and everyone else on the ship would be against but she didn't care, there was something about that dream that seemed a little weird. She hoped that maybe he'd seen it too, and that it wasn't just her. She ran past Fury, disappearing into a wall before he could say anything to her, she also ran past Natasha who watched her with slight boredom.

It must have been at least twenty minutes before she found him, he didn't turn around right away, but she knew that he knew that she was there, confused her slightly just thinking of it. Looking at the glass chamber she marveled at how immense it was, how thick was the glass? Was it comfortable in there? Didn't look like it was.

"Nice house," she commented looking down at the drop it could take.

"You dream of drowning," Loki said turning around with a stony expression. She looked at him with an equally as stony expression, determined not to show that she was surprised or emotional from it.

"I do," she said turning away from his gaze.

"How does it feel to drown in a dream from which no one ever saves you?" He questioned the smallest of smiles.

"Cold," she said shortly. His smile turned into a smirk, that she returned, but with a bigger smile than he had given.

"You really are an interesting creature," he said walking towards her. Stopping in front of the glass he looked down at her with an air of superiority, but she just smiled up at him, showing haw happy she was to be alive.

"Here!" She said holding out the food she had been giving everybody. Running around to the other side of the glass, where he wasn't standing right next to her, Cora set the food on the other side of the glass neatly. "I even gave you a cookie," she pointed at the cookie before looking back at him.

He was looking at her with an uninterested stare, but there also seemed to be something else hidden in his eyes, a question that he couldn't seem to answer. Just to spite her he walked over to where she'd set the food down and stepped on the cookie, staring at her as bored as a cat on a rainy day. She looked down at the mess beneath his boot with a small sigh.

"You can still eat the crumbs," she nodded at him before walking away. "By the way," she turned her head to look at him from over her shoulder. "Thank you for saving me," before he could say anything back to her she was gone, leaving Loki behind to stew in his thoughts.

It had been a surprise, entering into Cora's dream, but he could see her. At first he had wanted to see her drown, he wanted to see her limp body sink into the depths of the water he looked at, but then he saw her face. He wanted to mock her, he wanted so many things. All he could think of when he saw her was his own pain.

Her face contorted as she lost air and screamed under the water, he could see her as clearly as if he was looking out a window, he looked away from her, but felt as if he could hear her voice in his head.

'_Help me,'_ she pleaded. He looked back into the water to see that the bubbles were getting fewer, she was dying. Loki was confused, it was only a dream wasn't it, was it her dream? It had to be. Quick thoughts discovered something he wasn't ready to admit, she was just like him. Betrayed by her own kind, doesn't know her parents, alone.

'_Save me,'_ her voice said softly. Angry at himself and at her he reached into the water and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to the surface, she gasped and saw him, locking eyes with him before she was gone, and he was town away from the dream altogether.

He still hated the girl for her attitude towards everything how could she be so happy and optimistic when he was not?

She even cared about those who had harmed her, giving him food after he caused injury to her, he hated that about her, and yet at the same time he wanted her all for himself. She would only be nice to him, if she was so alike him, she only deserved him. Everyone else put up with her, they couldn't console her, they could do nothing to pull her out of the depths of the sea.

He wanted her all for himself.

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	6. Chapter 6

**Yay new chapter. This one took me a little longer because I sliced my finger today, so you better like it. Read and enjoy.**

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Cora spent the rest of the day going around and bugging everyone else, the only person that shooed her out of the room was Fury, but only because she was going around to each person and asking what they were doing individually. Then she started popping out of people's computer screens, which gave one guy quite the scare, so she was sent away.

"Cora," Tony's voice said the lab as she walked by. Turning around swiftly she looked into the room with a questionable face.

"What?" She asked with a curious stare. Bruce was shaking his head as Tony was looking between the two of them.

"Try to make him angry," Tony said pointing at Bruce with a small grin. He'd been trying to get the man to 'unleash' for a while now.

"Why?" She questioned looked at him suspiciously.

"Because I want to see what happens," he said eating something from a shiny bag. Tony was very good at making people angry, just the way he acted provoked certain people and he was proud of that, for some reason. But Bruce wouldn't budge, laughing calmly at his attempts. So it was time to turn to a pro, someone who was great at annoying people, and she didn't even realize it most of the time, Cora was like his secret weapon.

"But he's nice," she said looking up at both of them. She was aware that sometimes she could be very aggravating, and sometimes it was fun to see people snap, and then make a mess of everything, but Natasha had warned her. She'd taken her aside and told her to be nice to Bruce, because if she made him angry, it would be like fourteen angry Furys smashed into one, but bigger and green. To put it simply Cora got the idea and was only ever nice to Bruce, not that she wasn't nice to everyone else as well, but she had a way of getting into people's heads.

"No, come on," Tony said taking Cora gently by the shoulders and leading her over to. "Look at him, those cold eyes, that mean looking face," he said trying to persuade the girl. She looked up at him with a small glare.

"What are you trying to do?" She asked with a bored voice. Bruce laughed at them, shaking his head lightly before turning away.

"You know what?" Tony said patting her shoulder and looking down at her as well. "You're not helping, get out of here," he gave her a small push towards the door.

"Fine then, meanyface" she stuck her tongue out at him before running off.

"Meany face?" Bruce questioned looking at Tony.

"I know, her insults are ancient, like a little kid," he said going back to his computer.

Cora sulked her way down the hallway until she caught sight of Thor, with a bright smile she ran down to him and got in front of him.

"Want to play a game with me?" She asked looking at him.

"Game? Like for children?" He looked at her with a curious stare.

"No everyone plays this game, its called rock, paper, scissors," she said looking at him with a grin.

"How is this played?" He questioned looking at her interested. So Cora explained how to play it, a relatively simple game, one that Cora usually sucked at, for some reason she always picked the one that the other person could beat. Maybe if she taught someone else to play it, a newbie rock, paper, scissors player might be easier to beat.

After five minutes of losing to Thor, Cora gave up. The only thing he kept choosing was hammer, because he said that his hammer was so powerful that no rock could break it, and when Cora challenged him he wanted to get it tested.

So Cora excused herself, saying that she had to go talk to someone, and Thor continued on his way down the hallway.

"Hammer is the best," he said with a cheerful tone that frowned sadly at.

Finally bored with herself, which took a while for her to get to, she decided that it was time to go back to bug Loki some more, he seemed to be the only person that surprised her and put her on edge, what was he going to do? It was a mystery, and Cora loved to solve mysteries.

"Hi!" She said walking into the room that held his chamber. Loki smirked at her, walking a little closer to the glass he looked down at her as she walked ever closer to the glass as well.

"Do you enjoy my company that much?" He asked in a calm voice.

"No one else wants me right now, I'm pretty annoying," she said looking down a little fake sadly.

"So you come to a man that tried to kill you," he said with a little bit of a question in his voice. Usually one wouldn't want to go hang out with a man that had tried to kill them. "Why are you here?" He asked with a little bit of venom in his voice. Just because he had decided that he was going to catch her, in a sense, it didn't mean that he was going to turn nice to her right away. She would suspect something, and he wasn't that nice.

"You did save me though," she said looking up at him with a smile. "That cleans the slate, starting over," she murmured. "I brought you an apple," she took a red apple out of her bag. He looked at her like a boy would with an old toy.

She looked at him with a smile, trying to figure out how to give it to him without having to go into the glass cage.

"Here, uhm," she murmured. "Put out your hand," she instructed. He looked down at her as if to say, don't you dare command me. "Please?" She added at the end.

With a small sigh he placed his hand out, palm up, waiting for his apple. A smile spread on her face taking the apple with her hand through the glass, she placed it in his hand, and looked up at him to see that he was smiling at her.

Suddenly he grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the glass to his side, dropping the apple and twisting her body around so that her back was to his chest. Crossing his arms over her chest he trapped her body in front of his. Cora stiffened, how could she have been se careless to think that he wouldn't try something with her?

"Cora?" Loki breathed down her neck experimentally. He wondered slightly if she had ever been with a guy like this before, probably not, but sometimes innocence can be deceiving, he just wanted to make sure that she would be all his. "Respond to me," he growled next to her ear.

"What?" She questioned softly. He was dangerous, certainly he was, there was a part of her that told her to relax, that nothing was going to happen. Then there was the other side of her that said to stay cautious, there was no telling what he might do next.

"Are you afraid of me?" He asked with a smirk.

"I am wary of you," she said with a shiver. Loki grinned and went to touch her face gently, but she shrunk away from him, not used to any of this at all, she hadn't even kissed a guy yet.

"Good," he said turning her around to face him. He then leaned towards her slowly, holding her shoulders so she couldn't get away, but she certainly did try, leaning back away from him he held her in place until their faces were right next to each other. She looked up at him with a shocked and embarrassed stare, almost like a deer in headlights, what was she supposed to do?

Since she'd never felt really close to anyone before Cora never had the urge to explore the livelihood of being in love, or the feelings of more than like before. So she'd never hugged someone longer than a friend would, or kissed someone like a couple in love, or like, if that were the case, everything was a complete mystery to her. Almost like an unknown language, she really is like a little kid, wouldn't you say?

"How innocent you are," he smirked at her. Giving her arms a quick yank he was back in his arms, with a little bit of protest from Cora, Loki started to move his hands down further, testing his boundaries.

Cora's eyes widened before she began to struggle in his grasp, which got a dark laugh from Loki.

"So that is where you draw the line then?" He questioned letting her go. She scampered to the other side of the cage, looking back at him with a frown, her cheeks red from shyness and embarrassment.

"With a big fat marker," she said holding her imaginary marker in her hands. Walking over to his bed Loki watched Cora the whole time, like a cat would circle a bird before lunging. Cora walked the opposite direction of him, making sure that he was no closer to her than when he was holding her.

"Just wait until I cross that line," he smirked at her, sitting down on his bed, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Why would you do that?" She questioned taking a step back towards the glass. He smiled at her and tilted his head up slightly. Cora didn't know what to think of Loki anymore, she'd just wanted to bring him an apple and see if he would talk to her a little, and then this whole thing had happened. What was she supposed to make of it? What was going on?

So many questions rattled through her head as she looked at the man that was causing all of them, and he was smiling at her, looking at her as if he did this all the time. There was a teeny tiny part of her that had wanted to stay in his arms, mostly because no one had ever hugged her like that before, or done any of that before. It was a little exciting, but then her mind switched back on, he was the bad guy!

"All is for me," he said with a very demeaning stare. She looked over at him with a confused glare, had he really just said that everything was for him?

What he meant was that after everything was done, his plans to rule the earth and all that, he would have her for himself. She could smile, and laugh and joke like she always did, but it would be for him, and he could toy with her as he had just did.

"And that means…?" She said with a hesitant voice.

""You'll find out soon," he said looking away from her. Did that mean she could leave now? With all this going on she kind of wondered why she hadn't just left right away, maybe because he was still dangerous. Or maybe it was that she didn't want a repeat of what had happened not moments before. When she was in his arms she felt totally and completely useless and powerless, as if she could do nothing to get away from him, she hated feeling vulnerable. It meant that someone found out how to get under her armor and now they had the right weapons to harm her with.

"Then, I'm going to leave," she murmured walked backwards out of the cage. Appearing right in front of her Loki stared at her. Leaning back away from him Cora tripped over the apple that was still on the ground and fell backwards out of the cage, also going through the floor she fell into the nothingness that was beneath the glass cage.

Loki went back to sitting down on his bed, watching as Cora flew up and out of the room, catching a red blush on her face as she disappeared from sight.

With a soft chuckle Loki glanced at the apple, thanking it silently for allowing such an opportunity as it did. Her small body seemed to fit almost perfectly against his, the way she shivered at his touch made him feel all the more in power over her.

There was one word that came into his head as she stared up at him with that nervous and yet curious stare.

'_cute,' _was what he'd thought. Not that he was going to say it. He wanted her to feel like she was at his mercy, which was how she'd looked at him when he had her in his arms. Like he was the big bad wolf, and she was little red riding hood, except that she was white more than anything else, and she had no hood.

Everything was going according to plan, and now he wasn't going to be bored waiting for some of it to play out.

Cora ran down the hall towards her room quickly, a blush dusted her cheeks. Why did she feel so embarrassed in front of him? There was no one that she recognized on the way to her room, so she didn't have to talk to anyone about why her face was red, good for her. Going into her room through the door, Thor had broken it quite badly so she still had to go right through it, she went to her small bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face.

"That was just too weird," she said looking at her reflection. Why would he do that? Why? There was that comment that he'd given her, all for him or something, but did it actually mean anything?

Flopping down on her bed Cora sighed unhappily as Loki clouded her thoughts, the man was poisoning her mind and stealing her soul, except that her soul was fine and her mind was definitely not stolen, just very preoccupied. She was just happy that he wasn't there to see her going crazy like that, she momentarily flashed to when Loki had first come out of the Tesseract, and how her first thought had been handsome.

Her brain reeled from everything that was going through it at such an alarming pace, and it immediately went into sleep mode. Cora was happy for sleep, it had been a long, interesting day that she would rather not repeat or think of ever again, tomorrow when she went to visit Loki, she wasn't going to go anywhere near the glass. Nope, it was a bad idea to do that, and it was not going to happen like it did today.

With a sudden lurch Cora's brain gave up and turned itself off, sending Cora into a welcoming black abyss of sleep, and possibly dreams or nightmares, what a thoughtful brain she had.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Yay new chapter, I wasn't sure about this one because of some of the content, hopefully its still okay. So please tell me what you think of it since I'm a little wary.**

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Cora awoke from a dreamless sleep with renewed energy and almost no thoughts about what had happened to her yesterday at all, surely it would come back to her soon, but for now she was whistling a happy tune while putting on a new dress.

Whoever picked out the dresses had good taste, each one seemed to be something that she would buy herself, certainly they'd thought this over well, for she wouldn't wear something that was awkward to move in, or funny looking. Picking a dress that was light blue, different compared to her normal white, she grabbed her bag, slinging it over her shoulder before heading out to bug everyone.

Today she was going to draw portraits of everyone she knew, which would keep her occupied until she ran out of people to draw, and this would happen quickly because she was a quick drawer. Now don't jump to a conclusion that Cora is a good artist, not to say that she isn't, but she'll draw you nicely first before she draws something that could not even be considered something that someone would want to hang on their refrigerator.

Was she going to have fun doing this? Yes, she was even going to draw Loki, except that he was last, because she didn't want to treat him like he was all that and a box of crackers because he was some powerful crazy god. Definitely not because he was starting to creep back into her mind like a bad dream.

Determined not to think about Loki and his recent ploys Cora ran off to find Thor, he was her first victim after he'd beaten her so badly with his stupid hammer beats all game. She would have found him sooner if she hadn't ran past the kitchen, but she did, so she spent the next three minutes looking around frantically trying not to get caught as she filched more food from the cabinets.

"Hey," she said cheerfully as she finally found the man. He was talking to Coulson about something, looking slightly relieved at whatever he was saying.

"Cora," Coulson greeted before trying to walk off.

"Wait, Phil come back here," Cora protested running after him. He looked at her with a bored stare, what did she want? "I want to draw you, both of you," she said shooting a stare at Thor who seemed to be okay with standing there.

"I can't get out of this can I?" Coulson asked with a slight frown.

"Nope," she said with a triumphant smile. His questioned meant that it was okay as long as she was fast about it. "Okay, wait for a couple minutes," she mumbled getting her sketchbook out. She glanced at the two randomly before going back to drawing furiously, and she actually looked serious about it, Thor wondered what she was doing since he hadn't been listening earlier.

"Cora," someone said her name from behind her.

"Just a second," she said finishing up her drawings. She didn't notice that the voice belonged to Fury who was standing behind her, staring down at her weird drawings with a deep frown. "Okay, here you go," she said handing the pictures to Thor and Coulson.

Coulson's picture was at first a portrait of him, a nice one that he had to nod at approvingly, but the one beneath it was something that he frowned at. A short cartoon version of him held a Captain America card, and was looking at it like a squirrel would look at an acorn.

"Thanks," he said before walking away quickly.

"You're welcome," she said with a smile. Turning around to watch him walk off to wherever she finally saw Fury standing behind her with an angry stare directed right at her.

"Are you done?" He glowered at her. Behind her Thor was looking at his picture with a puzzled face.

"This makes no sense, if an animal swallowed my hammer I could still retrieve it," he said with a smile. Cora frowned at him, what a dummy.

"Cora," Fury said gaining her attention again.

"I actually still need to draw you," she said holding up her sketchbook and pencil. The look he gave her said that he wasn't going to let her stay in here any longer if that's what she was going to be doing the whole time. With a grumpy frown she started to walk away, except that she saw Steve walk in and her smile returned as she ran up to him and told him what she was doing. He gave her a plain, 'sure.' So she went at drawing him.

His little comic consisted of him looking at an upside down house and muttering, 'this isn't Kansas, and where's my dog?' He looked at her with a smile, and laughed lightly putting the paper down on the table.

"I do know what that means," he reassured her.

"Awesome!" She said with a grin. With a small gasp she sat back down at the table and proceeded to draw Fury, showing Steve who gave a short laugh. Cora had drawn Fury as one of the evil flying monkeys from the Wizard of OZ. Leaving it on the table for all to see she left the room and continued on her way, seeking Natasha as her next target.

It was fun, drawing everyone, seeing them laugh, and frown at her, telling her to go do something productive when they all knew that there was no job on the ship that she could do without causing trouble.

"That could happen," Bruce said looking at his little comic. It showed him and Tony in the lab at first, then Tony shocked Bruce and Bruce punched him out of the comic.

"No, I would have already dodged that," Tony said holding the picture up to his face. Both Bruce and Cora looked at him a slightly annoyed expression, they then looked at each other and shrugged, people with iron suits will be people with iron suits, nothing could be done about it.

"Okay I'm going to go draw someone else, Good bye," Cora said running out of the room towards where Loki's dungeon was.

"Bye Cora," Bruce said placing the picture down with a small smile.

"See ya kiddo," Tony murmured glancing at Bruce before looking at the picture more.

Cora skipped into where Loki was being held to see that he was staring right at her already, she stopped and stared at him a little wide eyed before running up to a few feet away from the glass and sitting down.

"What new petty pastime do you have today?" Loki asked staring at her blankly.

"I'm drawing you a picture," she said getting out her tools and getting down to business.

"Oh?" He questioned walking closer to where she sat on the other side of the glass. "Do tell, what is it you are drawing?" He asked looking down at her paper.

"No peeking," she said scooting backwards and holding the paper closer to her chest. With a slight glare grazing across his features Loki felt a bit of a harsh retort on his tongue.

"You will show me," he more of commanded then stated.

"When I'm done," Cora said defying his words easily, not knowing that he would get her back for it.

Waiting impatiently for her to finish Loki schemed up a plan of how he was going to get her back into the glass cage with him again today. With a smirk he now waited patiently for her to finish, a simple yet seemingly perfect plan had taken root in his mind.

"Okay, I'm done," she smiled looking up to see that he had taken a few steps back and was now looking at her with a very creepy looking stare. One that sent shivers down her spine and made her want to run for the exit. Turning around slightly Cora shrunk back in fright as she saw another Loki behind her with the same awfully unappealing look on its face.

Looking left there was another one, and also one on the right, there was nowhere to go but backwards, how could there be so many of him? Why was he doing this? She stared up at the three of them of them truly terrified; taking careful steps backwards she slowly walked through the glass to the other side where Loki was waiting for her. Grabbing her from behind, he restricted her arms and whispered in her ear darkly.

"Try to run," he said with smile. It wasn't meant as anything harsh, or anything like that, but it triggered something deep inside Cora, something that she'd hidden away from everyone, even herself.

When Cora first got stranded on Earth she didn't know the basic rules that any earthling knew, stranger danger. Most Averians are kind to everyone, which was where she got her unending happiness, so when she got stuck on Earth she ended up with the wrong people all the time. Some of them were actually okay; they just weren't people you would expect to see hanging out with a young girl.

You might already know where this is going, but one day Cora got involved with the wrong person. It was just some man that looked to be injured in an alley, which just screams bad news to any human with common sense. But Cora thought he was injured, and tried to help him, and he, in return, grabbed her and held a knife at her throat.

She still remembered what he'd said to her. _'Just try to run, give me something fun to chase. Go ahead and scream, no one will hear you,'_ was what he'd said to little Cora. Thank goodness she had wings; she had opened them, breaking the man's hold on her she'd been out of there in a flash. At first the man had tried to follow her, screaming at her, threatening her, scaring her. It wasn't that she'd been injured by the man, but just the way that he'd said that, it sent shivers down her spine, and she wanted to forget about it, mainly because it made her rethink her view of humans.

Now back with Loki, when he said that she froze, having everything rush back at her she opened her wings again, which startled Loki enough to make him let go of her. Falling onto the ground Cora folded her wings around her like a protective cage, the memory made her shake as she remembered how scared she was when she was younger. She'd sat in the park, jumping at every sound she heard, hoping that the man hadn't found her, clinging to herself because she had no one to tell her that she was okay.

Loki looked at the shaking feathered cage that was Cora, what had happened? All of a sudden she had changed from her happy, cheerful self, to a scared girl that wanted to hide from the world.

"Cora," Loki said walking over to where she was encaged. She didn't answer him, which angered him slightly. Taking a hold of both her wings he pushed them apart, taking in the sight of a very petrified looking Cora, who was clutching her knees to her chest. Looking at the girl Loki didn't know exactly what to do with her; she'd certainly never showed him this emotion before, then again everyone had their own dirty little secrets.

He did want to posses her, but with the way she looked at the moment his main urge was to hold her, like one might hold someone precious to them. Gently he grabbed onto her, even as she tried to get away from him, after she struggled some more he growled at her.

"I'm not going to harm you," he growled sitting down and holding her firmly, but with a fragile touch, as if she would break if knocked against the ground.

"You frighten me," she whispered softly. Loki almost wanted to smirk and say 'good,' but he refrained himself from doing so, for he wanted to know what had caused the girl to freeze so suddenly.

"What happened?" He asked looking at her seriously. "Tell me," he demanded when she didn't say anything again.

"I was all alone," she murmured softly. This was something that she'd never told anyone before, she told Tony many things, but this was something that she kept in the recesses of her mind, it was something that she was glad to not remember. "I was so scared, and there was no one to comfort me, I was so scared," she said again with a shiver.

Loki felt a small pang of pain as he recalled the cold feeling of being alone, not really the part about being scared, but he could definitely relate to the loneliness that she explained.

"Its fine now," he found himself saying without really thinking about it. "I have you," he said possessively. This was something he didn't mind saying because it was what he wanted, he wanted to be the one that she showed her emotion to, he wanted to be the one that knew all her weaknesses, then she would be his completely. There would be nothing else she could hide from him. "Nothing will harm you while I'm here," he said in a whisper.

Cora was still in slight shock from the random memory that decided to ambush her brain and take over her senses, but now as she was starting to get most of it back she was vaguely aware of who seemed to be comforting her. Even though some of his comments still sounded pretty selfish and demanding he seemed to care about her slightly, looking at the ground she saw that his picture was in front of her. Picking it up, without getting a paper cut, she looked at her comic with a smile, getting some of her cheerfulness back in her body she handed it to him.

"Here," she murmured with a smile. "I drew you," she said trying to awkwardly shimmy away from him.

He stood up slowly, taking her with him while looking at the picture. The first sketch was something that he wouldn't admit that he admired, a nicely drown portrait of his upper torso, even his expression looked accurate. The second drawing showed a cartoon version of him smiling happily with a huge hammer in his hands; he was standing next to Thor who had a small hammer and looked quite sad.

The implied humor was something that he didn't quite catch on to, but it still made him chuckle lightly and look down at her to see that she was trying to get away from him, which made him angry.

"I comfort you, and this is how you repay me?" He questioned her with a growl. "Ungrateful creature," he said in a dark voice.

Cora stiffened, how was she supposed to repay him?

"I'm sorry," she said frantically, squirming about uncomfortably. Loki relaxed a little when he heard her apology."I'll repay you, okay? Okay? But I have to go," she said as an excuse to get away from him. Now that he'd seen her lose her cool it seemed like he was trying to take everything from her, even her sense of security was dwindling.

"Fine," Loki grumbled letting her go. She turned back to him quickly, seeing if he was going to try something else with her. Instead he turned around and went back to sit on his bed, looking at her bored once again. "Fly back to your cage, little bird," he said waving her off with his hand.

At the nickname, little bird, Cora blushed lightly. Turning around and beginning to walk away calmly.

"Cora," Loki called from behind her. She turned her head towards him slowly. "This is our secret," he said darkly. He wanted no one else to know of this. With a start Cora ran from the room, she needed a friend right now, a brother, she needed Tony.

Running into the lab she saw with great distress that he wasn't there. Everything that had happened today, she couldn't take it. Loki messing with her emotions, the overwhelming feeling of loneliness that never left her, and the frightened feeling she got whenever Loki had her in his arms, everything was crashing down on her. Adding a side of feeling a little friendly towards Loki, like he wasn't just some mean monster god, all of this was confusing her, and she was just so sick of it. She was sick of being the only Averian on Earth, she was tired of being alone, fed up with not being of any help to anyone, and she was so sick of being weak.

Bruce walked into sight, he was the only one in the lab, and he hadn't seen her yet.

Hugging him from behind Cora smashed her face into the back of his shirt like a child would. He jumped slightly, looking behind him and seeing that it was Cora he relaxed a little bit, but he didn't know what to do. She let out a soft whimper, and made little clenches in his shirt with her small hands.

"Cora," his voice was soft and gentle as he tried to do something.

At that moment Tony walked back into the lab with two cups of something that emitted steam, he looked at Cora before looking up at Bruce with an accusing glare.

"What did you do?" Tony asked with placing down the two cups and going over to Cora quickly, brother instinct kicked into full power.

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	8. Chapter 8

**New chapter, hooray! Hope you enjoy the reading, and thank you for all the reviews, to those of you who have reviewed that it, I very much appreciate them. Its like fuel to the fire called writing, thank you bunches!**

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Cora explained that she was having trouble sleeping, which was half true, and that she was tired of being useless when it came to helping people around the ship, no one needed her help, all she did was bother them. Bruce and Tony looked at each other quickly, because that was all that she did, but really there wasn't anything she could really do to help them, she didn't even understand what they were talking about when they spoke to each other casually.

"Cora," Tony said prying her hands away from Bruce's poor shirt. "Do you know how important you are to me?" He got her to let go of Bruce and sit down across from him, Bruce sat next to her. Cora looked away and shook her head with a sad frown. "Do you know why I don't starve?" He asked her.

"Because you eat," she stated in a bored, duh, sort of voice.

"Yes, but no," he murmured touching her shoulders gently. "It's because you always make sure that everyone has food. And I look forward to the times when you come visit me in the lab, it's like a happy break time," he said trying to find the right words. Tony then looked at Bruce with a slight glare.

"Yeah," Bruce added at the end. He didn't know how to put his feelings for Cora into words. It was like he'd gotten attached to worrying about her, like he was somehow in charge of her. "You make me feel like I'm your brother," he said looking at her with a smile. She looked over at him with a growing smile.

"Really?" she asked. Tony looked over at Bruce accusingly.

"You can be her brother, but I get to be her fun uncle," he said hugging her and giving him the stink eye.

"Okay, you can be the uncle," Bruce said with a chuckle.

"The fun uncle, no one cares about the other uncles," he stated letting Cora go when she pushed away from him slightly.

"So, are you guy's hungry?" She asked standing up with a cheerful smile. She sure did bounce back fast.

"Oh famished," Tony said looking over at Bruce who nodded in agreement. "And I need you to go get some food for us," he emphasized the word need. "You know, because were too weak to get it ourselves," he summed up, suddenly slumping against his chair.

"Okay," Cora nodded. "I'll get you some good eats," she saluted them. Turning around she took a few steps, before turning back around and running to give both of them a hug. "Thank you," she said sincerely before running off.

"So why do you get to be her brother?" Tony questioned looking over at Bruce with a disapproving stare. "Your definitely not brother material," he murmured looking at something else.

"What? How would you know?" Bruce asked with a laugh. "And why would you be the uncle?"

"Because I'm fun and I give expensive gifts like any good fun uncle would," he countered looking at him.

"The brothers better, it means I get to see her more often," Bruce explained calmly.

"Well she likes me more," Tony said ending the argument just as childishly as it had begun.

For the rest of the day Cora was the main food getter, she usually had food anyway, so this was just another excuse to get more food, which she was fine with, it meant that she could continue to eat whenever she wanted to.

"Do you have any more sweet crackers?" Thor asked. Cora looked at him with a slight glare, she didn't know how many times she'd told him that it was called a cookie, and that he must not forget to try them with milk.

"They're called cookies," Coulson said walking by them.

"Oh, is that what they are?" Thor asked looking over at Cora with a big grin. He was messing with her and she knew it, but it was fun and she needed a good laugh.

Steve walked by the two of them, stopping at Cora and looking down at her.

"Tony wants you to go to sleep," he said patting heron the shoulder before sitting down at the table.

"What? I don't want to go to sleep, I feel so lively and energetic," she said looking at the ceiling as if she were looking off into the distance. Taking a superhero stance she made fists with her hands and placed them on her waist. "Pretend I have a cape like Thor's red one, but mine would be blue," she said running over to where he sat.

"He said you'd say that, and he told me to tell you that your stash is in danger," Steve said with a small laugh.

"He always uses that against me," Cora said with a frown. "I guess this is goodnight then," she said waving them off.

"Goodnight Cora," Thor waved chomping down on another cookie.

"Goodnight," Steve called after her.

Walking casually down the hall Cora took her time getting to her room, there was no hurry, really it was just sleep that she was missing, and she could get plenty of that later. Strolling into her room Cora took off her dress and the rest of her clothing before stepping into the shower, turning on the water and letting out some dull words.

"Oh goodness, holy smokes, that is cold," she gasped cuddling into the corner of the shower. She'd totally forgotten that the water in a shower was freaking freezing before it got warmer, but her mind had been elsewhere. The matter of the water temperature was not something urgent to her.

As the water got a little warmer she stepped into the warm rain that cascaded over her body, enveloping it in warmth. With her now warm and happy body Cora's brain got to work on what had happened that day, which was a lot compared to other days when the need for contemplating was much, much less.

Mindlessly turning around Cora opened her wings to the water; they needed a good warming and cleansing as well, do you even know how many bugs die when they hit her wings? It's actually not that many, but the water feels good between her feathers so she keeps at it, like a clean little Averian.

The first thought that came to mind was the horrid memory of when she was little, with a shiver she turned the water heat up a little and went to other more recently happening things, such as Loki. Just thinking about him made Cora a little speechless, what was he really trying to do? He'd tried to kill her, injured her, mocked her, threatened her, saved her, and comforted her. The ones that stuck in her mind the most were kill, save, and comfort, having comfort and save be the bigger ones of the three.

At first he had seemed to be just be toying with her, and she hadn't thought about his advances on her, because she'd excused herself from thinking of it as anything else than a game. Someone like him couldn't have feelings for someone like her. A guy like him needed another person like him to be with.

Leaning back against the wall Cora slid slowly to the ground, sitting with the water washing over her face she delved deeper into that train of thought.

A guy like him needed someone who was mischievous and sneaky, but maybe someone that could also make him smile, someone cheerful. But they also needed to understand what he's gone through, and what he feels, perhaps then he would turn away from his path. The path he's on is a dark one, Cora imagined it as a lonely path that only had room for one walker to travel on.

"He's all alone, walking down a path that can only lead to," Cora looked at her hand as she raised it slightly. "Pain," she clenched it and looked down at the drain. Faintly wondering where the water was going to go to if they were on a ship. "But he has no one to drag him off the path onto their own path, because he is all alone," she was kind of having a conversation with herself, trying to figure out how Loki felt.

A thought passed through her brain quickly, leaving a faint lingering question behind, which was totally irrelevant to the previous predicament. Did he have to sleep with the light on? Probably, sucks for him.

Back to train of thought.

He'd comforted her, and saved her. So he wasn't really a bad guy, was he? No, she didn't think so, but maybe he was confused as well. He just needed someone to call him out on things, then he would straighten up, she was sure of it, but what about her? Just today she had been an emotional wreck, getting comfort from a madman, crying in front of her friends, that was not something that she had ever wanted to do. Though it had brought her closer to each person she broke down on, even Loki, but it made her realize, that she was still painfully alone on this planet. Yes, she had Bruce and Tony and everyone else that she'd become friends with, but it just felt like there was something else that she needed.

She'd heard many times that humans crave relationships, and the need to feel an unbreakable love from someone, they needed to have that one person to share their life with, it was what they longed for. But she wasn't human; did she still crave the same thing?

When she was with Loki, and her brain was still intact, there was something that she'd felt. A small spark in her, a little bit of warmth, even though it had been immediately snuffed out by the instinct to run away from the crazy mad man killer.

Her thoughts were drug quickly back to Loki, he needed someone cheerful, that could drag him off the path he was on, if he had that person, maybe this whole rule Earth thing with him would blow over. Of course it wouldn't be that easy, but one could hope a little, right? Thinking over everything that Loki's ideal women needed Cora came to a very scary and startling realization.

"He needs someone like me," she gasped looking up at the water with a start. She then proceeded to cough and gag as she had swallowed some of the water and it went down the wrong pipe, it was never something that she liked, especially after she just found out something like that. Certainly Tony and everyone else would be against what she was feeling and realizing, but it didn't bother her. What did bother her was that she hadn't even known Loki that long, they only met a little bit ago, according to movies though, it could happen that fast, with it being love, or something like that.

All of this went back to her earlier dilemma, she said that she would repay him, but how was she going to do that. Going through all the movies she had ever seen Cora tried to think of one that matched her predicament. Suddenly standing up Cora finished in the shower, throwing on a night gown she ran out of her room at full power. Dodging people's eyes carefully she jumped and flew the rest of the way to where Loki was, quickly closing her wings when she arrived in his chamber.

"What do you want, little bird?" Loki asked turning around to look at her. She was panting slightly as she had not stopped running or flying until she was there with him.

Loki took in the sight before him with slightly hungry eyes, but also a sneer that seemed to be stuck on his face. Cora's nightgown was loose on her, exposing the skin on her shoulders, her wet hair clung to her face a little, her bare feet seemed to be red from all the running she must have done.

Taking a deep breath Cora strode forward towards Loki, who seemed intent on just standing there and staring at her with the eyes of a cat. Stopping in front of him she looked up at him and did it quickly. Getting on her tip toes she gave him a small peck on the cheek, which surprised Loki greatly, but it also made something inside him crack a little bit.

She'd decided that she could repay him with a simple goodnight kiss, it seemed easy enough, march right up to him kiss him on the cheek, and then walk away, easy peasy. And there you go, debt repaid.

"Goodnight," Cora said looking away from his eyes. She then turned around to leave him, but felt his hand on her shoulder turning her around. Feeling lips on hers Cora's eyes widened as Loki kissed her roughly, pulling her small frame against his body he tried to deepen the kiss, looking at her hungrily.

Cora didn't know what to do, she'd never done this before, and it made her nervous and scared, she couldn't let this go one any farther.

Breaking away from Loki Cora took a few steps back as he cursed at her, she'd bitten him.

"You impudent little-," he'd wanted to say more but the look on Cora's face made him stop. She had her hand over her mouth and was looking at him a little teary eyed, that was her first kiss, she didn't know what to do. Wiping a little blood off his lip he looked at her with a soft glare.

"Cora," he started to say something but she shook her head gently. Opening her wings and flying out of there fast Loki shouted at her. "Come back here," he growled angrily.

He hadn't expected her to come up and kiss him; the way she looked had just set him off. He wanted her, he'd already been thinking about the wretched girl all day, and then she went and did something like that. How could he resist not taking it further?

Cora lay down in her bed breathing slowly; if she'd known he would have reacted like that she would've taken a different approach. Feeling the way she did about him was already frightening to her, and then he had to go and do that. How was she supposed to face him tomorrow? Maybe tomorrow she would take a day off from going to 'visit' him, would he be angry if she did that? At the moment she didn't really want to think about what he would think, or do for that matter, she just wanted to get to sleep. She needed to get everything off her mind, perhaps tomorrow she could watch a movie with Thor, it was fun watching him react to Earthly pleasures.

So tomorrow, she would watch a movie, easy peasy.

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	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine! Didn't think I'd get this far, cheers. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, and perhaps you can also leave a review?**

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The next day Cora ended up watching a movie by herself, Thor watched the first ten minutes before Steve came and got him, saying that Fury wanted to talk to him about Loki. At the slightest mention of his name Cora looked down with a blush remembering the kiss, not wanting to remember anything related to that she continued to watch the movie. It was a random movie that she'd never seen before but it had sounded interesting. Now that she was watching it, it wasn't.

Switching over to her favorite T.V show, she started where she left off in the series. Not three shows into it and she was crying, one of her favorite characters died, and that was the exact moment that Tony decided to walk into the room.

"Your eyes are leaking a lot lately aren't they?" He questioned looking at her curiously.

"He died," she said looking at the screen. "He was one of my favorite characters," she bawled hugging herself.

"That's unfortunate," Tony said trying to scoot out of the room.

"He was so young," she cried wiping her eyes. That was when Tony bolted out of the room, leaving a crying girl behind to watch the death of her favorite character on T.V.

After that downer Cora tried to lighten the mood by walking around and seeing what everyone was doing, but Fury reprimanded her and told her to bug someone else, which is what she expected of the man. Sulking towards the kitchen she found a sign on the door that said, _'Cora, please stop taking all the food, the door is locked, you can't get in,' _is what she read.

"Hah," is what she said. Going through the door as if she was taking a stroll in the park, grabbing food angrily and stuffing some in her mouth before walking towards the lab. Bruce was in there, not Tony.

"Hey," he greeted walking over to a computer.

"Don't you ever do anything else?" She questioned looking at him grumpily. He looked back at her calmly.

"I do," he answered looking at her with a small smile. She certainly was amusing when she was angry; he faintly wondered what had set her off.

"Like what?" She asked with a curious gaze. All of a sudden she seemed very interested in what he was saying, or what he was going to say.

"Well-," he started to say before Tony interrupted him very rudely.

"Hey short stuff," Tony said, walking in and patting her head like a child. "How's your favorite character doing?" He asked sitting down and watching her reaction.

It was quite funny to watch actually. At first she just stared at him bored, but then her jaw started to clench, angry, and then a frown started to form, bending its way down her face, and then she started to get teary eyed.

"Tony," Bruce looked over at him with a slight glare.

"Dead," Cora shouted running out of the room and down the hallway, leaving a couple sandwiches behind.

"Well that worked," Tony murmured turning around.

"What was that?" Bruce questioned looking at Tony.

"Tough love?" He said turning around to glance at Bruce.

The rest of the day Cora spent her time napping at different locations. She took a nap in the kitchen, she took a nap in the control room, she took a nap on the floor, Steve tripped over her when she was taking a nap on the floor, and so did Coulson. It was a fun day; the only problem was that when night rolled around and Natasha yelled at her to go to sleep, she wasn't tired at all.

So there she sat in bed, thinking about the man she had spent the whole day trying to not think about. Him with his stupid handsome face, and his stupid smirk, and how he seeped into your mind and made you think about nothing else but what he'd done the night before, which, she had to say, sounded very naughty. Besides that, there was something else that was bugging her. There was this slight urge to go back to him, she thought no, but there was something in her that insisted she go see him tonight, she couldn't quite place the feeling. Perhaps curiosity?

Maybe she could go see him for a few minutes.

Loki had had a very boring day, after the night before he'd been waiting for Cora to come to his humble cage and lighten things up, maybe he could grab her again. He liked her, oh how he liked her. Love seemed to far a stretch, and he wasn't going to say that anyway, he was very deeply in like with her, how was that?

There was just something about her, the way she acted towards him, the way she felt pressed against his body, the feeling of her lips on his, everything about her seemed to be driving him crazy. He wanted to touch her skin, and hold her in his arms, and yet she hadn't come to see him today. Of course she was innocent, the kiss looked as if it frightened her, or surprised her at least, she'd even bitten him, which he'd been angry about at first, but he would be willing to forgive her if she just came to see him.

It was already night, or so he guessed, there was no way to tell when you were trapped in a chamber twenty-four-seven, but she still hadn't come to see him, and he was getting angry and impatient. Pacing around his small cage his thoughts swirled around in his head like a tornado, tomorrow was the big day, and he wanted to tell Cora that she was free to come with him. Else he would just take her by force, Loki considered Cora as his now.

With a smirk Loki turned around to face Cora as she walked in slowly, glancing at Loki, but mostly keeping her head down, how was she supposed to act in front of him now? When she looked at him all she could remember was how he'd kissed her the night before, and how she felt about that. Then that added to her accumulating grief at how she actually felt about the confusing, mischievous man, she had no idea why she even came to see him.

"Finally back, little bird?" Loki questioned walking up to the glass. He stared down at her like a dog might stare at a bone on the other side of the fence, so close and yet so far away.

She didn't respond to him, her mind was preoccupied with, _'do I like him? No, how could I? But,' _he bent down ever so slightly.

"Cora," Loki's voice brought Cora out of her thoughts. She looked up at him slowly, to see that he was staring at her with a very serious expression. "Come in here," he demanded. By here he meant the other side of the glass, or so she figured, and she almost took the step forwards but kept herself back.

"What am I to you?" She questioned looking away from him. If these feelings were at all one sided, then was there really any point to liking someone? Why would you want to feel that kind of thing for someone who's never going to return the feelings back? Even thinking about it hurt Cora's heart, it was the worst kind of feeling.

"Cora," he said her name again. It sounded like he was trying to figure out what to say, because he hesitated and didn't say anything at first, so Cora continued not looking behind her.

"I'm sure you've felt heartache," she murmured sadly. "I feel it right now," she said turning around and giving him a painful expression. It wasn't that the feeling of 'love' was hurting her, there were other things. By liking Loki she was betraying all her friends aboard the ship, plane thing, and she couldn't stand to hurt her friends. "I can't do this Loki," she said still looking at him.

The way she said his name was satisfying for him, but what she said to him was something else.

"You'd rather stay with creatures that know nothing of what you've been through, and do nothing to help you heal and grow?" He questioned with a growl. Cora looked at the ground for a few seconds before answering. Despite being different from her, all her friends were something that she needed.

"I need them," she said with a desperate frown.

"You only need me," he said with a little bit of volume in his voice.

"If that were true," she said in a whisper. If she had someone who knew what she'd been through, someone that could hold her and tell her everything was okay. "You wouldn't be the bad guy," she said turning away from him. She liked him, it was obvious, but this was the planet that her friends lived on, the planet that had been her home, and he wanted to rule over it.

With a low chuckle Loki smirked at Cora who turned around a little curious as to why he was laughing.

"When I get out of here, you're coming with me," he said turning around and walking over to his bed.

"What do you mean?" She questioned walking up to the glass suddenly serious.

"I'm going to pin you against the wall until you can't breathe," he said smirking at her. Cora didn't think that sounded very loving. Glancing around nervously Cora began to walk away, conversation over. "See you soon," he chuckled watching her walk away.

Cora ran back to her room and surprisingly enough fell asleep, as if talking to Loki was the most tiring thing in the world, good for her. Except for the fact that she woke up often after Loki's comment, so in the end she didn't get any sleep at all.

The next day Cora was in the lab again, thoroughly thinking about what Loki had told her, except she was dead thanks to her night of fitful sleeping.

"What's a matter kiddo?" tony asked looking over at her. She looked up at him with a little jump.

"Just tired," she mumbled rubbing her eyes as if she'd just woken up.

"Yeah, it does kind of suck sleeping here, I miss my awesome bed," Tony said with a frown. He then gave her a jacket, winking at her before walking over to Bruce to help him. Cora looked at the jacket quizzically before wadding it up and using it as a pillow, finally finding a comfortable sleeping place, she dozed off next to Loki's captive scepter.

The next thing she knew was that everyone seemed to be in the room, and they were all shouting, or most of them were, even Natasha was there, she was standing kind of next to her. Looking up lazily Cora saw Bruce take the scepter into his own hands, and he looked mighty dangerous with it.

"Bruce," Natasha said calmly looking at him. "Put the scepter down," she glanced at him momentarily. Bruce looked down at his hand as if to say, 'how did that get there?' before he put it carefully back on its holder. Cora had no idea what was going on so she very slowly and carefully tried to walk out from behind Bruce, he was kind of blocking her exit.

Very suddenly there was a crash and Natasha, Bruce and Cora were thrown out the glass window behind them. Cora fell next to Natasha, smashing her head against the metal walkway, her vision got a little fuzzy as Bruce seemed to be having a little trouble next to them.

"Cora get out of here," Natasha said looking at her very concerned. Seeming to regain some of her vision Cora started to protest, she could help, she knew Bruce. "Now!" Natasha whispered angrily.

At first Cora looked at the two of them worriedly before she stumbled around on her feet before running off, disappearing through a bunch of metal. Cora ran around the ship looking for anyone she might be able to help, she'd been through many hallways when she saw some men coming down the hall fast.

Hearing them say something Cora saw them aim their weapons at her, and with a cry of surprise she jumped out of the way into a random room. Running through multiple rooms she jumped out into the hallway catching one of the men in the jaw with her fist, Natasha had fought her a few things about fighting. Running back through the wall she caught another man in the stomach.

Hearing a sudden roar Cora looked around to see where it might have come from, only to be punched in the stomach, and hit in the back of the head, why did she have to be so curious about everything she heard?

Losing her vision again Cora sunk through the floor she'd fallen on to the one below them, where she lay on the cold metal for a little bit trying to regain her breath and her sight. It was bad business to lose your vision during a fight, almost like being under water, but not really. Hearing more crashes and more roars Cora dragged herself to her feet, holding her stomach as she walked over to a window to see how close they were to the ground.

With great shock Cora watched as someone fell towards the earth.

"Bruce," Cora yelled knowing that her voice only caused her head more pain. Going through anything and everything that she could Cora caught sight of Thor as he ran towards Loki's cage, so of course she followed him.

With a little bit of sympathy for Thor Cora watched as he ran himself into the cage as Loki had already gotten out of it.

"When will you not fall for that?" Loki asked with a slight smirk. Cora tried to slink away as Loki's back was to her, and she didn't want to go with him as he said she would. Hands at her back pushed her towards Loki, one of his men had walked up behind her and given her a little nudge.

Loki turned around to smile at her.

"And you," he smirked waking towards her. It was like the first time they had met, she backed away from him until she hit the wall.

"Leave her alone Loki," Thor yelled running up to the glass. Cora glanced over at Thor with a frightened expression on her face, he was out of his cage, and she couldn't run away anymore.

"Little bird," he greeted before pinning her against the wall and kissing her harshly. She tried to turn away but he held her in place roughly, stealing her breath away was not a good idea with her current head situation. She needed that air that he wouldn't let her have, her world started spin as she tried to push him away from her weakly.

Finally pulling away from her he took a deep breath as she slid down the wall breathing harshly. He looked at her with a dark smirk and a slightly lustful glint in his eyes, she looked up at him a little scared, her eyebrows knit together in pain. Walking away from her Loki went to the controls for the cage, getting ready to push the button that would send Thor away Coulson came to save the day.

"I don't even know what this gun does," he said pointing it at Loki threateningly. With a soft smile Cora got to her feet shakily, Phil to the rescue, she wanted to say before she froze. Loki was behind him, stabbing him through the chest, pulling away from him Coulson sank to the ground, gun still in hand.

"Nooooo," Thor shouted banging on the glass desperately.

"Phil!" Cora cried out.

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	10. Chapter 10

**This one took a little bit longer to write because I had to figure out how to make Cora...well, kick butt. Hopefully it has turned out okay, please tell me what you think of the chapter in the review box, I very much appreciate everyone who has already left me reviews, and I thank you for them. Enjoy the chapter**

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Cora cried out desperately, watching as Phil sank to the floor, still holding that blasted gun that he'd been so proud of just moments before. Crawling over to him Cora was almost to him when Loki picked her up and held her next to him like a parent might hold an angry child, still a loving hold, but one that prevented the captive from escaping.

"No! Let go of me!" Cora yelled trying to get over to Phil, who was looking back at her.

"Loki!" Thor shouted at his brother as he lugged Cora over to the big red button of doom.

"Bye," Loki said with a smirk before pushing the button. Cora cried out for Thor as he disappeared down the chute of many deaths, which was what Cora had called it after she had almost fell down it herself. Cora fought against Loki, trying to break out of his grip with everything that she had, and since she was kind of injured it wasn't very much at all.

"Let me go!" She shouted trying to pull his arm away from her.

"Oh, but little bird, we're going talk to your friend," Loki said with a sneer looking at her. He then proceeded to drag her with him towards Phil, who was lying on the ground looking at Cora with an expression that she didn't recognize, pain maybe? Very explainable since he'd just been stabbed in the chest, but no, this expression was different.

"Phil," Cora said in a gentle voice. He gave her a gruff smile.

"Say your petty Goodbyes," Loki said pushing her towards her injured friend. Cora looked up at Loki with hatred, which he smirked at faintly.

"Cora," Phil mumbled looking at her weakly.

"I'm so sorry," she said placing her hand on his cheek gently.

"It's not your fault," he said softly. Cora looked at him fondly, if he got help right now there was a chance he could still live, she wouldn't have to say goodbye, and she didn't want to.

Losing herself to happy memory land Cora sat next to Phil as he talked to Loki about conviction, or something. Her mind was stuck on the memory of when they'd first met. It was a while ago, when she'd first gotten into S.H.I.E.L.D, he was the first person that joked around with her, and didn't treat her like a freak. They made fun of each other's names, she always thought Phil sounded a little comical, and he thought Cora sounded like a weird rock, and it had been so much fun. She'd finally made a friend, someone who didn't care that she was an alien, someone that cared about her, Phil, she needed him.

Tears started to creak down her cheeks, leaving little trails of salty water on her face; she couldn't lose him, not here, not now.

With a sudden crash Loki was launched out of sight.

"So that's what it does," Phil said looking like he was giving up. Cora smiled through her tears and looked at him lovingly. "Cora," he murmured faintly.

"What?" She responded in a gentle voice.

"Get out of here," he said looking towards the door.

"No," she protested stubbornly. There was no way she was going to leave him here, that would mean that he might not make it. "I can't just leave you here, why does everyone always want me to leave?" She questioned trying to figure out how to move him.

"We care about you too much," Phil gasped out. Cora looked down at him, not knowing what to say, what did she have to say? "No one wants to see you get hurt, run," he said seeing that Loki was getting up slowly.

"No," she said starting to cry again.

"Leave me," he said with a small smile. "I still have my gun, go," he said nudging his head towards the door slightly. Nodding her head with a sad frown she got up and looked back to see that Loki was getting up angrily, catching her eyes he growled at her.

"Catch her!" He yelled at some of his men as they arrived.

"Goodbye Phil," she said in a choked voice before opening her wings and jumping away from them, quickly flying out of sight Loki followed her with a slight smirk on his face; she wasn't going to fly out of his grasp.

Phil watched as Loki and his goonies ran after Cora.

"Bye kiddo."

Sprinting down a hallway as fast as she could Cora gasped when she saw that there were three bad guys at the end of it, could she not escape? Drying her face of tears she turned around to come face to face with Loki, who was smirking at her triumphantly, as if to say, _'found you.'_

"Little bird," he greeted looking down at her. Cora shrunk away from him, dashing away from him quickly he materialized in front of her with a chuckle. "There's nowhere to run to this time," he smiled at her.

In a desperate attempt to hit him she lashed out with her fist, which he caught with ease, laughing along the way. He pulled her towards him and picked her up; flinging her over his shoulder like one might carry a sack of potatoes.

"Let me go," she said pounding her fists into his back. "I hate you," she shouted closing her eyes sadly. This was not something she said to people lightly, it usually meant, _'from the depths of my soul I hate you more than anything, crawl into a hole and die.'_ It was a word she reserved for those she truly hated, and that list was very small, but it did include the clown from McDonalds, because he's a clown, and clowns are a scary. The man that gave her food poisoning, and now Loki as well.

"It will pass," he said glancing back at her with a smirk. He had her, she was finally his. There was the small matter on how she hated him right now, but that didn't matter to him, soon he would rule over this puny planet, and she would have no one else to turn to.

Walking quickly towards a plane that seemed to be waiting for them Loki rushed onto it with a smile, setting Cora down, who immediately tried to get away from him, he grabbed onto her and held her with him. She struggled in his grasp, trying to wriggle away from him like a dog that just saw food dropped on the floor.

"Be still," Loki growled at her. "Or I will have to find another way to calm you," he whispered next to her ear. At his remark Cora froze, he'd already killed Phil, was he going to kill her too. No, there wouldn't have been a point to capture her if he was just going to kill her anyway.

With bitter thoughts Cora wanted to discard her mind, even through all the hatred that she felt towards Loki there was still an inkling of thought in her that wanted to be in his arms, there was still a part of her that liked him.

"That's better," he murmured next to her ear with a grin. A shiver moved its way across her body as she tried to lean away from him.

"You killed him," Cora said, still not wanting to believe that Phil was going to die.

"He was in my way, him and that dreaded brother of mine," Loki said with a growl. Cora turned to look at him sharply, tears welling up in her eyes when she thought about everything that had happened to her because of him.

"They were my friends," she said glaring at him through her tears.

"Come now little bird, I already told you that all you need is me," he said pulling her face close to his. Shaking her head sadly she looked away from him. Loki growled and pulled her face back towards his, kissing her, pinning her against the side of the plane, just as he had done on the ship. She didn't kiss back, but he was expecting that, he just wanted to feel her body pressed against his.

"Loki," she tried to get out when he kept kissing her.

"Bit me, and see what happens to you afterwards," he threatened between a kiss. For a moment when Loki was kissing her she felt an urge to kiss back, but it was a feeling she shoved into the corner of her mind, it was not something that she wanted to feel. It was not something that she wanted to do, especially with her friend's murderer.

Finally pulling away from her Loki looked at her breathless and vulnerable face, the state that she was in, he could easily ravish her, and oh how he wanted to. She was so innocent, and now he had her all to himself, even with the hatred in her eyes he wanted her. For now he was going to see that she slept for the rest of the ride, because once she was able to move he knew that she would try to escape.

"Drink this," he said tossing her a water bottle. She looked at it with an irritated expression.

"I know that there's something in this," she said throwing the water bottle back at him. "I'm not drinking it," she stated firmly, and with an angry tone.

"Oh, but you will," he said with a smirk. Opening the bottle himself he took a mouthful of the water, before moving towards her and kissing her harshly, forcing the water into her mouth she had to swallow it. Almost choking on some of it she started coughing when Loki pulled away with a very satisfied smirk on his face.

"That was cheating," she said between coughs. Glaring over at him she started to lose her vision, the last thing she saw was a smirk on the face of the man that she had mixed emotions for.

Tony, Steve, and Fury were in the control room, mourning over Couslon's death, Fury pulled out Phil's Captain America cards, saying that he didn't get a chance for Steve to sign them.

"There's one more thing," fury said looking to see how they would react to the news. "Loki took Cora," he said glancing at the two of them. Steve leaned back in his chair, mulling over this new information with added grief. Tony looked baffled by the information, earlier when he'd asked about everyone's favorite Averian he'd gotten a different answer.

"You told me she was okay," he shouted at him. "And now you tell me she's with that monster," he paced around angrily. Even Steve looked perturbed by this, Cora was everyone's ray of sunshine, she was always happy when you needed it, Steve had grown quite fond of the girl, like she was a little sister that everyone needed to take care of.

"I told you I didn't know," Fury said looking at Tony seriously. Tony looked around the room frantically before rushing out; Steve followed him, with less angst but with just as much urgency.

"Let's go get the bastard," Tony said looking back at Steve.

When she finally came to Cora had been laid down on a couch in what looked to be Tony's tower, at first it seemed as though Loki was nowhere to be seen, but good things only last so long.

"Look who's awake," she heard his voice from behind her. Turning around slowly she jumped when she saw that he was right behind her, smiling down at her, with a grin that looked to belong to a child.

"Look who was a jerk and knocked me out," she grumbled walking away from him. At her remark Loki smirked and walked away from her as well, looking over at the machine that would create the portal that would let a bunch of bad aliens come to Earth.

"Unless I read your feelings wrong, I thought you liked me," Loki mused turning to face her abruptly.

"That was before you killed my friend," she countered turning to look at him as well. With a smirk Loki advanced on her.

"So you do like me," he chuckled watching as her face turned red, as a blush dusted its way across her cheeks. "Good to know," he said taking steps towards her. This time she didn't back up, she couldn't believe that she actually told him that she liked him, or used to, but it was the same thing, what a sneaky weasel he was.

"Did," Cora insisted when he stopped right in front of her.

"Cora," he said her name in a gentle voice, She looked at him with angry eyes, but a soft expression started to come across her face. "I know about you, I can hold you when you're alone, I can be there for you when you need someone," he murmured lovingly. He raised his hand to her face, making her look at him when he was talking to her; the look she gave him was something that he wasn't expecting, at least not right away anyway. There was a small glint of hope in her eyes, as if she'd been wishing for a companion such as he was offering for a long time.

Cora was torn, she did still have feelings for him, the nagging feeling in her mind had only grown stronger, but she hated it now. How could she like someone who had killed her friend? How could she feel like this?

"No," Cora said turning away from him and shaking her head. She wanted to cry, and scream, and shout at him, it was all his fault, wasn't it? Or was it her own fault? If she had just been a little stronger, maybe it wouldn't have happened this way.

Falling to her knees Cora covered herself with her wings again, hiding herself from the world, hiding herself from Loki, she'd shown him such weakness in the past few days she couldn't bear to see the smirk on his face.

Coulson was dead, and she blamed it on herself, she couldn't even escape like he had wanted her to, and there was nothing she could do that would stop Loki from unleashing his army. There was still something she could do against him though, she could fight. With this newfound determination flooding through her brain Cora felt a warmth in her, it was something that she had never felt before. Standing up proudly she looked back at Loki holding her head high, she walked over to him intent on getting her point across.

Looking up at him Cora leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips, it felt and looked like a kiss goodnight, a kiss a young couple might give when they are saying goodbye at the front door of their house. Loki was a bit taken aback, but returned the kiss nonetheless, trying to deepen it only to have Cora turn away from him when he leaned down into her.

"I do have feelings for you," she whispered, kissing his cheek before turning away. "But I cannot stand beside you and watch everything crumble," she looked down sadly at first. After finally coming to a conclusion on how she felt she had to leave, and suddenly there was this uncontrollable urge to fly.

"You will stand by my side," Loki demanded, shouting at her back defiantly.

"Goodbye Loki," she murmured before running full power through the glass and out into thin air.

"Cora!" She heard Loki shout her name behind her, but she was already falling. With a snap her wings opened and she was quickly approaching the ground, there was the feeling of an uncontrollable itch in her arm. She landed on the streets, people staring at her, because in all the time that she lived on Earth no one ever saw her with her wings open, there had been the promise that she knew about, people are cruel when it comes to something that's different. So she hid herself away, and now they finally saw her.

Scratching at her arm Cora ran underground to the subway, she sensed that there was something about her that was going to change, and she didn't want thousands of people on the street to see it, because they would probably run away like wimps.

Looking down at her hand Cora saw that it was starting to glow faintly, and with the light came pain, a pain that seemed to spread throughout her whole body, and seared her soul. It almost felt as if she was getting burned from the inside out, and the glowing started to spread, so naturally the pain went with it, blinding Cora with the sheer amount how unbearable it was.

With a sharp cry Cora fell to her knees, clutching her head as the eerie white light started to eat her vision, clouding her eyes, it covered her sight like a blanket would block out nightlight.

You probably want to know what's going on, it's something that happens to very few Averians, if you've seen Dragon Ball Z, it's much like when they turn Super Saiyan, except it's also quite a bit different. First off the energy that allows you to become so powerful also causes a large amount of pain as it changes your body in order to accommodate it. The power is the same for all species of Averians, and many other races have described it as the light that you see before you die, which makes sense because you glow, and then you kill people, and that's the last thing that they see.

The power that they use is very unique, because it changes that person's way of living into a power source, say there is an Averian who, all his life, felt terribly sorry for himself. If he were to go super Averian, the feeling of loneliness and regret would turn itself into a ghastly dark shadow; it would be the same for someone who might be wanting to control a planet with feelings of revenge.

With Cora, and her white light the feelings she had were those of happiness, and determination. It was almost as if she now knew the reason as to why she was ever abandoned on this planet, as if she was meant to go through all she did for the very reason of protecting everyone she loved from someone else that she loved. Which might not make the most of sense, but it certainly helped her go super Averian, didn't it?

There's also something else that usually happens to Averians that use this, but let's not worry about it right now, instead let's get back to Cora who is now totally engulfed in white light, and is lying on the gravel of the ground.

Slowly getting up her with eyes closed Cora felt very much alive, not that she didn't always feel alive, but this was different, she was running on pure energy, it was not a feeling most people ever experienced in their lifetime. With a deep breath she opened her eyes to the world around her, her vision was back, and it seemed clearer than ever, as if she could see miles ahead on her in one glance. Her eyes glowed like a thousand glow sticks on steroids, and she had a passing thought that wondered if glowing contacts would ever be invented, because they would be pretty awesome.

The process to becoming super Averian took a little while, unnoticeable to the user because of all the pain that came with it, but it was kind of a long process. Cora was a bit surprised when she heard screams coming from above her.

So she jumped, it was just a simple jump, but since she was in super mode she was able to jump clear to the road, landing in the middle of the street where a car went right through her. Loki had seemed to have been able to open his blasted portal, and there were many aliens rushing out and towards the city. With a little bit of surprise Cora saw that Tony was leading a pack of them away from everything, doing his best to keep out of their reach, flying as best he could.

With a steady hand Cora lifted her hand into the air, palm pointed at the sky she bent her fingers slightly, in the blink of an eye there was a beam of light, much like Tony's hand blasting power, but much bigger, and much more powerful. The beam destroyed four alien flying ships, and threw a couple others off track, making Cora smile with a slight air of disbelief.

"Wicked," she smirked looking up to see that she'd caught the attention of a few alien ships. Focusing some energy in her hand Cora gripped the ball of energy in her hands, wondering faintly if her silly idea would work, but feeling that it would she gathered the energy before throwing it at one of the ships.

The ball stuck to one of the aliens, and then it started to expand, like a huge unwanted tumor growing on his neck. For a second Cora wanted to laugh at the alien, it looked pretty funny, and that was when the ball exploded and sent the three ships around it careening into buildings off on the side.

"This is awesome," Cora shouted flapping her wings and taking flight. Noticing that she left a trail of smoke behind her she laughed and wondered if it did any damage, with another great flap of her wings she joined the fight again, flying in behind them she managed to destroy their ships flying machines quite easily.

"Let's get this party started," she said kicking her flying speed into high gear.

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	11. Chapter 11

**So I spent a while trying to figure out how I was going to keep this going without copying someone's story, or stealing idea's, hopefully this is a good way to keep the story going. Again, thanks to everyone for the reviews, you know I love them. Enjoy this chapter.**

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Hearing a slight roar Cora looked up to see a sort of worm like thing with armor on, and my oh my, was it huge, letting her jaw drop she gazed at the thing a little perplexed, how the heck was she supposed to kill something like that? That thought quickly left her mind as it was covered up by, screw that I'm a boss right now.

About to jump into it full force Cora saw that Tony was leading it away, perhaps he had a way of defeating it, she didn't have time to watch, there were still tons of alien flying things destroying parts of the city. So she went to take care of them instead, there's only so much one person can do to help, but since Cora was in super mode it made her feel like she could do anything, which was more or less true.

With a thud she landed on one of the flying machines, taking it down a few feet the aliens on board gurgled in their language and tried to shake her off, and the other tried to fight her. Launching some energy through the middle of it she jumped took a few steps and jumped towards another one that was flying a few feet in front of her. Doing the same thing she jumped into the air and flew towards the portal, she could kill them before they even touched Earth.

While flying towards the opening she shot out a huge beam of light, stopping about a dozen alien ships before they even made it out of the portal. There were still many ships crashing through the city so she went back to work on taking those out, taking a few hits here and there, but more often than not she kicked butt.

Flying around the city she saw Bruce, now as a big green hulk thing, Steve, Natasha, everyone, she wasn't sure if they saw her or not, but it wasn't something that she was going to stop and think about. She even saw Thor, which was something she was relieved about since the last time she saw him he was being sucked out of a plane. They were all fighting bad dudes, and that's what was most important here, plus Cora was kind of keeping count, she wanted to compare later.

"Eighty," Cora shouted taking out yet another ship. She was panting, and her breathing was starting to get ragged, did this mean that her super Averian mode was coming to a close? It couldn't be, she still had to fight aliens, she still had to save people.

Aiming at another ship Cora stopped short when she saw that Loki was riding it, her face contorted with emotion as she lowered her hand.

Whipping her head around towards the portal she saw that there were more worm things coming out of it, making their way towards the city, ready to smash building, or whatever they were going to do, Cora growled and lifted her tired wings. Even now they felt heavy as she flew into the air again, focusing on what she had to do Cora launched towards one of the worms, covering herself in energy she went straight for it.

At first she was stopped by the worm, its thick skin seemed resistant to the energy that was surrounding Cora. With a faint sting Cora felt pain in her body, she started to tremble, she started to hurt, but it wasn't the time for that, she pushed through it. With an angry battle cry, one that she had always wanted to do, she pushed through the worm, tearing its skin apart and launching out the other end, crashing into a building; she lay still for a few moments.

The worm fell to the ground with a great thud, one that made Cora smile even from where she was. Gritting her teeth against the pain that she was now feeling she flew to the ground softly, landing a little hard she shot out energy at aliens that seemed to be terrorizing citizens on the ground, and she would not have any of that.

Looking across the road Cora saw Steve running towards a building that seemed to be slightly surrounded by aliens, so she followed him, she hadn't spoken to much anybody since she started fighting. She figured she could at least say hello.

"Hi Steve," she said flying by him quickly. Steve spun around in a circle trying to find her before he spotted her flying away. With a slight sigh of relief he went back to work, she seemed safe enough, no one had seen her since Loki had taken her off the ship, so it was nice to see her.

Cora turned around to see that he had disappeared into a building, helping people, killing aliens; Steve was pretty good at that.

Quick eyes caught an alien holding a grenade, ready to throw it at a group of people who were cowering from three other aliens that were surrounding them, Cora flew over to them just as the alien threw the grenade. Mustering as much power as she could Cora made a shield, white light encased everyone as Cora spread her wings in order to make the shield big enough to cover everyone. The grenade exploded blue, destroying the ground around the people who screamed expecting to be blown apart. Cora gasped at the pain that seemed to be spreading throughout her whole body now, yes, her power was leaving her.

That was when they realized that someone was helping them; looking at Cora a little scared she smiled at them painfully.

"You're okay now," she in a stern voice. With a sudden cry of pain Cora looked at her shoulder to see a spear sticking out of it. An angry alien had stuck her from behind, breaking through her weakening shield and getting her in the shoulder it sneered at her, twisting the blade and making Cora cry out in agony. The spear had gotten her shoulder and her wing, turning the white feathers red.

The shield broke, and Cora fell to her knees, using the last bit of her power she created a wave of energy that killed all aliens that were on the ground within fifty feet of her. The people around her ran away when they saw that the aliens had fallen, a couple of them stayed behind to help her, with a little bit of vigor she pulled out the spear, cringing as it tore itself away from her body.

"We need some help over here," one of the men said as they steadied her gently. Hearing something tear through the sky Cora looked up to see Tony vanish into the portal; from where she was she looked at the portal angrily. Getting to her shaking feet, she shrugged off the humans and began to walk back to where she saw Steve; he could help her, couldn't he?

Clutching her shoulder she kept her eyes trained on the sky, the portal was closing now, Cora dragged her limps wings across the ground, barely able to pick up her feet she froze when she saw Tony barely make it back to Earth. He fell, he wasn't conscious, if he hit the ground, he would die.

The feeling of pain was so great she could almost think of nothing else, save for the fact that she knew she would probably die. With this fresh on her mind there was someone that popped into her head, and you probably know who that was. Loki, she wished that she could have known him without having to fear he would destroy her home. She wished that he wasn't such a butthead, that he could have kissed her once more and maybe she would have kissed back.

There was so much she wished for, but her biggest wish at the moment was that Tony would live, if another of her friends died, she would die a very unhappy life. If he died, she would have failed, and she would have died knowing her friend gave his life, when she should've given hers.

With a smile dashing across her face Cora watched as a big green dude caught Tony and brought him to the ground not far from her, she could at least make it that far. Walking was a great chore, the blows and hits she had taken in her more powerful form were coming back to her one at a time, a punch here, a stab there. She was a horrible walking bloody mess; one would wonder how she could even keep her legs beneath her, or how she could even keep them moving.

When she got up to them Tony was talking away about some type of food he thought they should eat after the whole thing was over.

"Good," she said sickly, catching Bruce and Thor's attention. They looked at her and froze.

"Cora," Thor said taking in the sate she was in. Immediately Steve and Tony's attention was on her, both looked at her with frozen expressions, that couldn't be Cora could it? She wasn't supposed to fight this battle; she wasn't supposed to get hurt.

"You're all okay," she mumbled before falling towards the ground. Steve caught her before she hit the ground and immediately checked for her pulse, looking over at everyone else to see that Thor was right next to him.

"She barely has a pulse," Steve said feeling her neck gently. Tony was scrambling to his feet trying to get over to her, her pale skin seemed to be even paler than usual, if that was even possible, she was pretty white normally, but this was different.

Now let's go back to what wasn't said about Averians when they go into super mode. As you already know when they are in their more powerful state they don't feel pain, it almost seems as if they are invincible, which is how most Averians destroy themselves. As the power starts to wear off you can feel the pain that was ignored during battle, you start to feel the blows and injuries that you'd accumulated over the course of the battle.

The transformation from super Averian back to regular Averian is, by itself, a painful experience. Along with the inflictions of previous blows it's almost unbearable to go through, most of the time the body cannot handle it. You see, most Averians who transform into this powerful being, are never seen again, almost all of them use all the power they had to give. Whether it was to protect the ones they loved, or to destroy something they wanted revenge on.

Most of them die.

Cora lay almost lifeless in Steve's arms. With a great roar Bruce grabbed Cora and jumped off towards a hospital, smashing into the building her dropped her on the ground next to a doctors feet. The man looked at Bruce with fear written all over his face, he wanted nothing more than to run away from the monster in front of him. Then he looked down, angel was the first word that popped into his head when he saw Cora's wings, except that they were red now.

Staining the floor with her blood Cora's face clenched in pain, even when she was unconscious the blows of the battle still stuck into her skin like a knife, creating new wounds from which her blood could be leaked. Bruce looked down at her as she writhed in pain, worry stitched into his face when he saw that she seemed to be looking worse off than before.

"Help," Bruce growled at the man. The doctor looked at Cora a little fascinated by her wings before he jumped into action, calling for nurses and a bed that he could gently lift Cora onto. Bruce ran off before the doctor could turn around and wonder about what had happened, he'd found new anger in wanting to destroy the man that had captured Cora in the first place.

At first he hadn't known, but Tony had told him because he thought it would add onto his anger, which it had, so it'd worked.

For Cora the rest of the day seemed to be all pain, there was nothing that the doctors could give her that seemed to help with anything. They had stopped the bleeding from her shoulder, that had been their first victory, but there seemed to be nothing they could do about anything else, the angel they were taking care of was still dying.

After fighting with it for a while they finally got her to stabilize, she wasn't bleeding anymore, they'd bandaged all of her wounds, but she wouldn't wake up, and she wasn't getting any better. Tony looked down at Cora, everyone had gone to the hospital, Natasha, Hawkeye, Steve, everyone, even Fury, though Thor had to leave a little while before. Something about talking to Loki before they left later in the day, they were going back to Asgard soon.

Surprisingly enough when they'd captured Loki he'd asked about Cora, was she okay? They didn't answer him, he didn't have the right to know, no one wanted to tell them how much Cora was suffering, they thought he might be proud, or happy at her pain. They didn't know that he was worried.

"Tony," fury's voice called over to him. He was sitting by Cora's bed, looking at her pained face.

"What?" He questioned without looking back at him.

"Cora's going to die," he said looking down at her as well. With that remark said Tony stood up angrily, throwing his chair across the room and glaring at Fury with an unbearable amount of pain and rage.

"I know that, don't think that I don't know," he shouted at him. "I know she's dying, I know," he yelled walking up to him. Tony went to Cora as soon as he could, almost breaking when he saw her laying lifelessly with wounds all over her body, she wasn't supposed to be hurt, she was supposed to be dying.

Fury looked at Tony and sighed.

"There is something we can do to save her," Fury said looking Tony in the eyes sternly.

"Whatever it is I'll do it," Tony said his voice getting quieter.

Taking Cora from the hospital as gently as possible Tony and Bruce carried her to where Thor and Loki were going to leave, Thor had already been confronted by the idea, and agreed that if Cora was taken to Asgard she might live. Everyone had already said their quiet goodbyes to her, not that she could say it back, but they didn't know if they would ever see her alive again, or sort of alive considering the state that she was in.

"Thor," Bruce called over to him when they'd come into sight. Loki was standing next to his brother, looking away from everyone until his brother was called out so suddenly, and that was when he saw Cora.

The condition she was in made him speechless, wounds all over her body, scratches and gashes and injuries everywhere, she was a mess, and she didn't seem to be waking from it.

Tony handed off Cora to Thor with as much gentleness as he could, Cora needed help now, but he wasn't going to throw her around in the urgency of trying to save her. Thor took her in his arms, holding her as one might hold a sleeping tyke; he looked over to Loki with a grim expression.

"Look here brother," Thor said motioning towards Cora. "This is what your insolence has done," he stated watching Loki's eyes. Loki looked down at Cora with a sort of dead feeling, how could she have come to being like that? It was strange to see her so, motionless, usually she would be skipping around and talking about random things, anything, she would be talking about anything! Instead, she looked dead.

Tony looked Cora over before kissing her on the forehead softly.

"Bye short stuff," he murmured sadly, walking backwards slowly.

"I will bring her back alive," Thor promised before picking up the Tesseract. He said a few other things and then waited for Loki to pick up the other end of the glowing thing.

Loki glanced at Cora, who seemed to only be getting worse while they waited to leave. It was his fault, wasn't it? She looked like this because he'd let her go, of only she'd stayed with him he could have protected her; nothing would have happened to her, she wouldn't be looking like this.

With a determined expression Loki made a decision. When she lived, not if, he would have her as his wife, she deserved him. No one else, and he had to make things right.

Picking up the other end of the Tesseract, Loki, Thor, and Cora disappeared, back to Asgard, where Cora was going to live, or die.

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**So yeah, review, click the button, all that jazz. Thanks for reading, hope you liked it.**


	12. Chapter 12

**New chapter! So I need your peoples opinions. I have a couple new stories in mind, one of them in for Scrubs, and the other is for the Patriot, and I was just wondering which one you would like to read more. This Loki story is going to continue regardless of what I'm asking, but I kind of want to know, its wavering right. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, and thank you, as always, for the reviews.**

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It had been a week since Cora had first gotten to Asgard, and she still hadn't woken up. Her wounds seemed to be healing just fine, her wing was mending, and she was all around getting better, besides the fact that she hadn't opened her eyes yet, but that time would come.

Loki and Thor watched over her daily, they wanted to be with her when she woke.

Now you're probably wondering what happened with Loki's punishment and all that goodness, here the scoop. It was decided that Loki would be kept at Asgard, in the palace, where he had no power, and could do nothing without a guard watching him. If he failed to show any improvement, or seemed to be going back to his more criminal ways, they would deal with him in a harsher manner. Not a very intense punishment, but Thor was always kind when it came to his brother, it was in his nature to be forgiving. Plus he had a hunch that there was something between Cora and Loki, of course his mind didn't stray past the thought of friends, but it was on the right path.

Loki was fine with this, secretly he had hoped that they would keep him at the palace, then Cora would be within reach of him all the time, the only problem was that she made no response to anything yet, how could he sway her if she wasn't conscious. With the guard around him he couldn't even attempt to hold her, or even touch her for that matter, it was an obstacle that he already had plans to get around when she woke up.

Cora awoke to hear silence, a very unnerving sound, one that usually comforted her, but now it seemed like it held something secret, and deadly, like a shadow of a man hiding in the corners of a dark room. With a stiff breath she opened her eyes and looked at the room around her, this was definitely not anywhere she had ever been before, it didn't even look like a hospital, or anything like that. This room looked very extravagant, as if it was fit for a king, or a friend of a king upon closer inspection.

Trying to sit up Cora gasped in slight pain, man was she sore. That was when it all came back to her, the fight, getting hurt, almost dying. There were few things she remembered after she fell in front of Steve, Tony, Thor, and Bruce. She could recall looking at the ceiling of a white hallway, most likely the hospital, as they rushed her down it on a rolling bed, voices calling out to her, red feathers, and even a few mumbled goodbyes, but that memory was so foggy she wasn't sure if it was real or not.

Painfully wrapping her arms around her shoulders she shivered slightly.

"Where am I?" She whispered softly looking around more. She waited for a few minutes, but no one came in for her, so with great effort she pulled her legs over to the side of the bed and touched her bare feet to the ground tenderly. When you were trying to move body parts that felt like lead it was a little bit harder to believe that you might actually be able to walk with those body parts, but Cora was determined.

Carefully putting weight on her feet Cora tried to steady herself, already shaking from the effort and strain that was being put on her body she closed her eyes tightly and tried to stand up all the way. For a second it seemed like she could at least stand upright, and then her body said _'screw you,' _and decided that the ground might be a very good friend to her.

Reaching out for whatever was closest to her Cora grabbed for a small table that held a glass of water, which came tumbling down with her to the friendly floor.

With a small whimper of pain Cora looked down as the water started to seep into her white gown, she didn't even have the strength to get back into the bed.

"Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain," she murmured looking out the door into the hallway. Even the hallway looked extravagant, just where was she?

Loki had walked by Cora's room after she had woken, not knowing that she was awake inside he kept going, thinking that she wouldn't wake today, feeling the same sinking feeling he felt whenever he looked at her face. He was pretty far down the hallway when he heard a crash from behind him, you might think it _could_ have been someone else, but it wasn't. Cora was the only one staying in this part of the palace; Thor wanted her to wake to a peaceful place, not one full of chatter and busyness.

Running back to her room quickly Loki tried to listen for anything else from the room, but all he could hear were the guards footfalls as he ran behind him, that, and the sound of his own steps. The guard's steps only reminded him of his boundaries, he may be able to roam around freely, but he wasn't free to do what he wanted.

Stopping right in front of the door Loki looked down to Cora looking up at him, slightly afraid, but mostly confused and shocked. Her wings were opened slightly, hanging next to her body like curtains, and her hair looked messy above her clear grey eyes, making Loki catch his breath lightly. He forgot what she looked like when she was staring right at him, she really did look like a priestess of some sort.

"Loki," she whispered looking up at him. Goodness, her voice sounded like garbage, almost as if she just screamed all night long and this was the morning after. For Loki her voice was something that he needed to hear for awhile, it felt as if the sinking feeling had been lifted from him quickly, and he could breathe.

"You're awake," he said looking at her kindly.

"Yeah," she murmured staring at him a little oddly. "That's what happens when you stop sleeping," she said looking at him with a weird face. "You know, or you die in your sleep," she added the last part softly.

"Cora," Loki said gently. "You've been asleep for a week," he kneeled down next to her slowly. Her face froze, looking at him worried and baffled.

"What do you mean?" She questioned looking at him. "Where have you taken me?" She leaned away from him, if she was here with him; did that mean that he'd won?

Suddenly there were thunderous footsteps approaching the room, Loki stood up quickly, looking at the door and waiting for him to come in already, and so he did. Thor smiled grandly when he saw that Cora was awake, he lifted her off the ground as easily as an adult would lift a child, placing heron the bed with such care you would think of them as brother and sister.

"Cora, it is good to see you finally awake," he grinned standing in front of her as Loki stood off to the side.

"Thor where am I?" She asked looking up at him with a vulnerable expression.

"You are in my home, in Asgard," he said motioning towards everything around her.

"But why?" She questioned him further.

"You were dying on Earth, bringing you here saved your life," he explained looking at her with a more serious expression.

"I almost died?" She glanced at Loki, holding his eyes for a second before looking back to Thor.

"Yes, but now you are alive," he gave her with big smile. "Tomorrow we shall celebrate, you can meet my father and mother," he said walking out the door with a laugh. Cora looked after him a little strangely, you would think that after she had been out for so long the visit would last a little bit more than that, but then again it was Thor. So it kind of explained itself.

"Well, at least I'm not dead," she said cheerfully looking back to Loki.

"You do know that you are still mine," Loki said with a small smirk. He decided that she was going to be his a long time ago, and that had not changed, the manner of making her become his was different, but all in all still the same.

With this statement Cora looked at Loki with a slightly bored expression, he was in trouble for all that he did, he fell, just like she had predicted, and yet he still had the idea that she was going to be his, where did that confidence come from? She sure didn't have anything like that, well she was confident that she liked candy, but this was totally different.

It also made her a little happy, since she had wanted to get to know him a little better, maybe she could fall into _'like'_ all over again, and this time, he could do nothing to hurt her. With a sort of sly smirk to match his own Cora tilted her head a tad to the right.

"If you want me, you're going to have to run," she said sticking her tongue out playfully. "Of course, you'll have to wait until I can actually…run," she hesitated looking down a little embarrassed. Here she was trying to talk down a big guy, and she ended up feeling shy in the end, which was something that she had wanted to avoid.

All she meant was that he would have to work for her, because when it came to something like this, she was not the person to come to, she hardly noticed anything about these kinds of things at all. And by this and these kinds of things she meant 'love and relationships, if someone was flirting with her she wouldn't notice until they had already lost interest and moved on, she really was like a little kid. Except more innocent and playful. You know how little kids are these days, there like demons.

"When I catch you," Loki started to say walking up to her slowly. That was when the guard cleared his throat and glared at Loki, a silent threat that said _'stop talking now'_ it was clear that the guard was uncomfortable with anything of the matter of Loki and Cora.

Loki had wanted to say that when he caught her there would be no mercy, which would have caused poor Cora to redden like rosy cheek on a cold snowy day, making her look away in that sweet way that she did. It was something that Loki had wanted to see, he craved her innocent reactions, unlike most women who would say something right back to him.

"That's enough visiting time today," the guard said walking towards the door with a very commanding voice. Glaring at his guard Lokis turned around angrily.

"Fine," he snarled turning to leave Cora without a good bye, he wanted her to want him, and this was one way that had worked before.

"What do I do then?" She questioned looking over at them sadly. She knew no one else in the whole palace, and he was going to leave her alone. Loki may not be the best company in the world, heck she would trade him in for a stuffed animal, but at least he was someone to talk to.

"Rest, there's a celebration tomorrow," Loki said walking briskly out the door.

"But I'm not tired," she called after him. He didn't answer, nor did he come back to give her any other type of response, how lame of him.

On the other hand, this new type of relationship between the two of them was something that Cora liked, it seemed as if they were classmates in school, and she was the new student who had been friends with the other person a while ago. So they knew each other, but it was still kind of awkward to hang out or something like that, it was a little hard to explain for her, but it just felt, comfortable.

She didn't know how in the world she had gone from, hating him, to liking him, to being _'friends'_ with him, but it was something that she liked, the way he spoke was kind of playful. Though there was also the matter of how he was going to make her his, but in a way, she didn't mind it, which scared her more than other thoughts she had had previous to those. Did that mean that she wanted to be with Loki? Or did she just like the idea of being risky about everything?

Now that she got down to business, she actually was very tired. Who the heck knows why since she had been sleeping for ages, but it felt like just talking and fumbling on the floor had worn her out more than she knew. Almost dying really took a lot out of you, it certainly wasn't something she ever wanted to do again, no thank you.

"Good night Cora," she said to herself softly. It was something she did sometimes when she felt lonely. A sad thought had just collided with her busy brain. Since she wasn't on Earth anymore, did that mean she would never see her friends again?

She would ask Thor when she woke up.

Loki walked away from Cora's room with a grin on his face and a question in his mind.

What was he going to do when he caught her? Obviously his guard would not allow anything even remotely close to what he wanted to do with Cora, kissing was a big fat no, so how could he try to catch her if he wasn't allowed to run. Of course there were ways, and of course he could easily get away from his guard, but could he also get Cora away with him, and would she go quietly.

All of this was something that he had to take into account, especially if he was going to keep all for himself, there were still other men in the palace, and Thor would probably introduce them to her. She could easily fall for them as well, not that she would, but he was just worrying over everything. She had the freedom that he did not; he had to keep her within his sights, because if she was going to make it hard for him and run, he would hunt her down.

This was going to be fun.

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	13. Chapter 13

**Woo! New chapter, look at that! Question still stands, The Patriot or Scrubs for next story? Tell me, or I'll just have to pick one randomly, I have one vote for Patriot, so its winning right now. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

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The next morning Cora woke up to a man sitting in her room. At first she barely opened her eyes, not believing herself when her eyes told her there was some random dude in her room, staring out her window at who knows what.

Hearing the bed shift the man turned around and smiled at her handsomely, which is to say that he wasn't half bad looking, save for his weird beard thing that Cora wanted to laugh at a little.

"My lady Cora," he said tipping his head to her. Cora just kind of looked at him a little oddly, who was this man and why was he in her room?

"Uhm," she caught his eyes staring into hers. "Who are you?" She mumbled pulling the blankets closer to her body.

"Oh, pardon my rudeness," he said raising his eyebrows slightly. "I am one of Thor's friends, my name is Fandral," he said with a small bow.

"Oh," Cora said making a small O shape with her mouth. Moving forward on the bed, ignoring her soreness with great strength, she kneeled on the end of the bed and looked at him.

"Why are you here?" She asked yawning and stretching her wings out into the room. Fandral looked at her wings with fascination; he'd wanted to see this girl that Thor had brought back with him from Earth. He'd heard that she wasn't human, and that she looked to be a priestess or a goddess of a sort, so he had to see for himself. Asking Thor if he could help her get ready Fandral had not been in her room for five minutes before she had woken up.

The five minutes that he had been in there were, curious to say the very least. Gazing at the sleeping Cora, he figured out that she was Averian, he had heard of the race once before, but never seen one of them. She was something else, a very beautiful creature, she looked even better when her eyes were staring at you. To be very honest Fandral was stricken with her right away.

"To help you get ready, the feast starts in a few hours," he explained before letting a few women come into the room. They made a fuss about getting her to stand, which seemed mighty difficult with how much strength she didn't have, but eventually she was standing upright and getting dressed in an elegant gown.

"Get out Fandral," one of the women said glaring at him. Not wanting to provoke the maids anymore than usual he exited the room and waited patiently for Cora to come out in her new dress.

Inside the room Cora was getting measured and groomed and washed all almost at the same time, which was a new experience for her, it was strange to have someone else dress you and get you ready for the day. Especially when one could hardly stand or walk at all, how was she going to get to the feast if she could barely keep herself on her feet?

"Nice morning isn't it?" Cora asked with a smile towards one of the women. They ignored her. So with a sad frown she went back to being a doll for them, what was so wrong with wanting to talk to someone? Cora thought that they might be a little too cranky for their own good; perhaps she could get them some candy, would they spark into happiness then? Probably not, best not waste good candy on someone who wouldn't even say it was a nice day.

After an agonizing ten minutes, which felt more like a year for Cora, the women were done dressing her and messing with her hair, walking out of the room just as quickly as they had come.

"Weirdo's," Cora muttered looking after them.

"Aren't you going to come out Lady Cora," she heard Fandral's voice from outside.

"Sure," she said simply. It was one thing to say that she was going to walk outside, but doing it was a whole different ball game, if she could barely stand, how was she going to walk outside to where mister weird beard was?

Stumbling around she finally got out the door to see that not only was Fandral staring at her, but Loki was there as well, doing the exact same thing as Fandral, staring. With a sigh Cora tried to get their attention.

"How do I look?" Cora questioned walking slowly out of the room into the hallway."I look funny don't I?" She grumbled looking at the ground slightly crushed. They were going to have a feast, it was a big thing right? A feast sounded pretty grand. Thor had even sent women to dress her, and he said that she could meet his mother and father, that was always something big in movies and such, Cora figured it was pretty much the same thing. If she didn't look nice it was a good sign to her to crawl back into bed and die in the recesses of her blankets. Not die physically, but wallow in self pity.

Fandral was the first to respond as Loki seemed content with just staring.

"You look," he paused trying to find the right word. "Stunning," he finally said. The comment caused Loki to glare at the man with a bitter anger, and hatred that seemed to seep from the cracks of his crumbling mask of a smile.

He'd been angry when he first saw that Fandral was waiting outside Cora's room, what was he doing there? Fandral explained that he was in charge of Cora for the day, and that he was waiting for her to be done changing, adding that he was excited to see how she was going to look.

With a sneer Loki waited beside him, he couldn't let Cora be taken away from him by Fandral, it certainly wasn't going to happen, not now, not ever.

When she walked out of the room and into sight Loki was a little bit baffled to say the very least. Cora now wore a silver dress of silk, one that hung from her body like a curtain would hang by an open window, her hair hung loosely around her head, and a simple necklace completed the outfit with a shocking shine.

When Fandral finally got something out of his ridiculous mouth Loki sneered at him. Cora was his Goddess, his ray of sunshine that never seemed to stop shining, and he wasn't going to let some hairy buffoon come and take her away from him.

"Now I will show you to your room," Fandral said walking away from her.

"But I thought this was my room," Cora said taking a shaking step after him. Loki looked between the two of them in annoyance, he wanted to get Cora alone, but with Fandral the weirdo beardo walking along with them there was nothing he could do.

"A small room like that?" He laughed continuing to walk down the hall briskly. "We have a room prepared for you," he said looking back at her with a smile.

"Cool," she said excitedly. Fandral went back to walking quickly down the hallway, and he was talking about something, but Cora didn't catch it, so she chose to ignore him instead. Cora looked after him unhappily, she couldn't walk that fast, didn't he know that she was still recovering?

With a small gasp Cora was lifted into Loki's arms, he picked her up gently and held her bridal style, which caused her to blush lightly.

"This is faster," he growled walking after Fandral, who was already pretty far along the hall.

"I can walk Loki," Cora murmured looking up at him shyly. Lies, she couldn't walk, and he knew it. The way she trembled when she had first came out of the room told him that she wasn't really in any condition to be wondering around out of her room. She really shouldn't even be going to a feast, but it was hard to stop Thor from doing something when he was excited about it, and Thor wanted Cora to meet everyone.

"You call that stumbling around walking?" He mocked her. "I like this position much better," he whispered in her ear darkly.

It was uncomfortable for Cora, there was a part of her that did like it, he was holding her lovingly, different from the last time when he'd just slung her over his shoulder like a backpack, it was nice.

"Hey mister guard dude?" Cora questioned trying to look behind Loki, he didn't let her.

"Yes my lady?" The guard asked walking next to them.

"What's your name?" She looked at him with a smile. If there was going to be this guy following Loki wherever he went Cora wanted to know his name, maybe they could be friends or buddies, or something.

"It is not important," he said simply falling behind them again. Cora was from a different planet, a different realm, she didn't know that no one asked for names of guards, she didn't know that most people weren't friendly to everyone.

"Yes it is," she said trying to look for him again.

"Cora, that thing has no need for a name," Loki growled looking back at the guard angrily.

"But everyone has a name," she mumbled sadly looking away from Loki. He was being a butthead, it was normal for Cora to be like this, Loki knew, but he only wanted her to be like that for him. If she was kind to anyone else he went to full blown jealousy and defensive mode, she only had to be nice to him, everyone else was unneeded.

"My name is Ara," the guard said much to Loki's dismay. If Core knew more people that meant that she would have more people to talk to, more people to hang out with, it meant that he would have to steal away her attention.

"That's a cool name," she said cheerfully.

"Thank you lady Cora," Ara said making a small bow. With a growl Loki walked faster and caught up with Fandral, who was still talking despite the fact that no one was listening to him, which was a little funny, even Cora didn't seem to care.

"Hey Fanny!" Cora shouted at Fandral, apparently he had a new nickname. Fandral turned around and looked a little surprised and slightly angry by the fact that Loki was carrying Cora; Thor had told him that they were friends, nothing more. The way that Loki was looking at him proved otherwise, a threatening look seemed to be rooted in his eyes, he was holding onto Cora as if she might drift away. Which could quite possibly happen, it was Cora after all, no one knew what she was going to do next.

"Yes?" He asked with slight irritation.

"Are we there yet?" She asked with big curious eyes.

"Actually yes, your room is right there," he said motioning towards it.

"Ooo," Cora said before looking up at Loki with a small glare. "Put me down, please?" She added the please at the end for good measure, someone Loki seemed moody for no reason.

With a sigh Loki let Cora go. She wobbled around slightly, but somehow managed to make it to the room, going right through the door she was relieved that her power was still working slightly. On the other side of the door Fandral looked at the door curiously, had she gone straight through it, Thor hadn't told him about this.

Loki and Ara followed Cora into the room to see that she was laying on the bed and hugging a couple ofpillows.

"These are so soft!" She exclaimed hugging it tightly. Loki smiled softly, at least it seemed like she was back to her old self again, her old, curious, obnoxious, and caring self. "Here feel this," she said throwing a pillow at him. Loki caught it easily, much to Cora's dismay; she wanted it to hit him in the face.

Fandral came into the room and looked at her with the same curious expression.

"Come here," Cora said with a laugh towards Fandral. He came over hesitantly, throwing a smirk towards Loki seeing that he was glaring at him sternly. "Isn't this soft?" She asked pushing the pillow at him.

Feeling a smile find its way onto his face Fandral smiled and grabbed the pillow from her. Her behavior was so childish it was hard not to get sucked in, he wanted to play along with her, she seemed so happy to be doing what she was doing.

"It is," Fandral agreed throwing the pillow back at her with a chuckle. Loki sat down on the opposite side of the bed and pulled Cora towards him, he didn't like the looks that Fandral was giving her.

"Hey," she protested trying to get away from him.

"I think that Lady Cora should get some rest before the feast," Ara said in a loud voice behind them. Loki glared at his guard in frustration, could he not have one minute alone with Cora?

"You are right," Fandral said straightening himself and walking towards the door. "I shall come get you in a little while Lady Cora," he said, smiling at her and walking away.

Ara ushered an angry Loki out of the room, leaving Cora alone again.

"Being alone is no fun," she murmured feeling lonely. With a glance around the room Cora saw a bowl of fruit, or something, whatever it was it made her stomach growl, she couldn't remember the last time she ate anything. Gobbling down one of the _'fruits'_ Cora felt a little better and looked towards the window in her room, it looked to have a balcony.

Walking towards it slowly Cora stretched out her wings with a sigh, they were begging her to fly, with a small yawn she decided that she could fly for a few minutes, since that was probably all her body could handle at the moment. Pushing open the doors to the balcony Cora gasped looking around her.

The sight outside her window was beautiful, the scenery was of nothing she could have ever imagined before, sat least not on Earth, their different variations of scenery was limited, but this. This sight made Cora want to fly all the more, to feel the wind against her face as she flew through a new world.

"I hope I don't fall," she mumbled sadly before jumping out into the air. For a few seconds she did fall, but then she could feel the air beneath her wings, pushing against it strongly she pulled herself higher and higher into the air. Closing her eyes Cora glided for a little while, the calm wind rushing through her hair, combing through her feathers it was a very welcome feeling, except for the fact that her body felt so much strain she wasn't sure if she could make it back to her room.

She probably shouldn't have gone into the air in the first place; her body wasn't used to using so much strength after a week of doing nothing in bed, but she'd wanted to so badly that she ignored the smart part of her brain.

Straining against her weakness she turned back towards her balcony, save that she had no idea which balcony was hers, there were a bunch of them, where was she going to land?

Looking at the closest balcony Cora felt her wings start to fall, she had to land now. It was kind of scary, there was a dropping feeling in her stomach, and her hands started to shake, this was really scary. She'd flown to exhaustion only twice before, but it was different because she knew where she was, both times she either landed in a lake, or slowed down and grabbed onto a tree. There was nothing like that here, why had she been so stupid to think she could fly?

"Loki!" She found herself calling out his name without really thinking about it. For some reason she had felt safe in his arms today, when he was holding her she felt as if he was protecting her from something.

"Loki, Loki, Loki, Loki," she called for him quickly. Hoping with everything that she had that he had a balcony in his room. Thinking about it quickly it was kind of a test, if he came to her right now, if he showed up and saved her then she would be willing to delve deeper into her feelings of like with him. She wouldn't try to get away from him when he held her, of course she would still be cautious, but she would call him friend. Man she had to be really scared if she was thinking this far into it.

"Cora," she looked around for the voice that called out to her. Looking around frantically Cora caught sight of him, it was him, it was Loki.

Using the last bit of strength she had Cora flapped towards him; crashing into his open arms she hugged him like a scared child might hug their favorite stuffed animal. He caught her without losing his balance and tried to look at her face, but she wouldn't let him.

"That was so scary," she whimpered into his chest.

"Why would you do something as stupid as that, you should-," he started to yell at her but then thought better of it. This was not the way to making her like him better.

Carrying her over to his bed he sat her down on it gently.

"You had me worried," he said touching her face gently. He'd been sitting in his room, very bored, thinking of a way he could sneak into Cora's room before he heard someone call his name softly. Imagine his surprise when he saw Cora almost falling out of the sky from exhaustion.

"I'm sorry," she looking into his eyes fearfully. He was scary when he was angry, she remembered other times when he had been angry and he talked to her, it was like when a teenager sneaks into their house but gets caught, it was that kind of scary.

"It's okay," Loki growled. He wanted to scold her like a child for some reason, or that's what it felt like, since she was always so childlike. Getting up and pacing around the room Loki wondered if he should tell Ara to take Cora back to her room, it wasn't that he didn't want her to stay, but if they were caught with each other Loki might be able to see her anymore. That was something that he couldn't risk.

"You have soft pillows too," Cora mumbled cuddling one of his pillows before dozing off. Loki looked over at her with a soft smile, when she was asleep she looked so much older and so much younger at the same time. Leaning towards Cora Loki growled lowly, he wanted her, but this would have to wait until she trusted him more, and until Thor let him walk around alone.

"Guard!" Loki called out to Ara, he didn't want to use his name. Ara walked into the room looking bored; only until he caught sight of Cora did he shoot an accusing glare at Loki. "Take Cora back to her room," Loki grumbled walking back onto the balcony.

Ara picked up Cora gently, holding her as if she was made of glass he walked out of the room carefully; it was difficult to carry her when her wings were slightly open. Ara liked the girl, not it a touchy feely way, more in a protective way, she'd asked for his name, and she spoke to him as one would speak to a friend, no one spoke to him like that. To everyone else he was just the guard, but to Cora he was.

"Ara," Cora murmured opening her eyes sleepily. She reached up and touched his face gently; letting her fingertips lightly graze his cheek she looked into his eyes. "You have pretty eyes," she mumbled before dozing back off.

If there was one thing Cora was good at, it was making friends, a lot of people liked her, or they just thought she was really annoying. It was a good point though, she knew how to get under peoples skin and stay there, either as a friend or an enemy, she was there, sticking like gum to someone's hair.

Placing Cora on her bed gently Ara pulled the cover over her thin frame, it seemed that being unconscious for a week had caused her to lose some weight, she probably didn't even notice, but Ara was good at spotting things.

"I'll be back to get you in three hours," he murmured before walking away and closing the door silently. There was still a feast tonight!

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**Yes, you know what I want. So I'll say it anyway, please review. I like them, reviews are like candy to me, and candy is like a drug and drugs are like...candy?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Woo, new chapter. Today was my birthday, so you should be happy I even wrote a chapter. I also started my new story for the Patriot, its a Colonel Tavington story, only one chapter so far, but go read it anyway...maybe?  
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Cora had already been awake for an hour when someone knocked on her door; she was very totally and completely bored. At first she inspected her room, looking under everything, opening everything, throwing pillows for fun, she lost one over the balcony, but then she just stopped and waited for someone to come get her. Lying sprawled on her bed, wings slightly open, staring at the ceiling.

"Come in," she said not looking to see who was there.

Fandral walked into her room with a happy step in his normal trod, it was his job to make sure that Cora was ready for the feast, and he was happy that it was his job, he slightly fancied the girl.

"Oh," Cora murmured upon seeing who it was. "Hi Fanny," she mumbled rolling onto her stomach, letting her wings stretch out until they hit the ceiling. For some reason she had been expecting Loki, not that she like liked him or anything, but when Fandral walked through the door she felt slightly disappointed. Maybe it was because Loki had kind of saved her, and she hadn't really thanked him yet.

"Were you expecting someone else?" He questioned looking at her face curiously.

"No, I just," she started to say something but realized that anything she said would revert back to Loki and how he was clouding all her thoughts again. "I had to chase the pillow that I threw and it flew away, and now it's gone," she muttered pointing towards the balcony. Hopefully this would throw him off, it was a true story, the pillow did fly away, but her rambling made her sound just a tad bit crazy.

"Right," he said looking at her a little baffled as to what he should say to that. "Well, I've come to collect you," he said motioning that they should leave.

"Time for the feast?" She asked a little excited now. It had been the growing excitement that had been edging in her stomach, there seemed to be nothing else that was going on in the boring palace anyway.

"No, Thor has a surprise for you," Fandral said with a smile on his face.

"A surprise?" Cora said suddenly excited. She jumped off the bed, stumbling around a little she finally got to the door and looked back at Fandral with newfound determination set in her eyes. "Let's go," she said looking back at him.

"Alright," Fandral said catching some of her excitement.

He led her down the hallway a little slower than the last time, mostly because she yelled at him that she was too slow and he should be nice and walk with her, which he did quickly. She then proceeded to tell him about how once she had gotten a surprise from Tony, he'd given her a house to stay at in the mountains, that way she could fly, and be away from humans. It also had a great deal of food and snacks in it, so she'd been happy.

Thinking about Tony brought her mood down slightly though, she didn't even get to say good bye to him, to any of them, would she ever see them again? Fandral noticed that her mood had gone downhill slightly and he tried his best to lighten it.

"Do you know how to use a bow and arrow?" He asked trying to get her mind off whatever it was stuck on. She looked at him and shook her head; her eyes had a faint gleam of curiosity in them, what was he getting at? "I can teach you how," he said proudly.

"Really? So I can be like that flying baby person?" She questioned with a big grin stretching its way across her face.

"Well I can at least teach you how to shoot things from far away," he said not knowing what a flying baby person was.

"Awesome!" She jumping and hugging him happily. He didn't have time to do anything back because she was already bouncing around the hallway happily, and he slightly admired her energy towards it.

Seeing Thor at the end of the hallway Cora ran as fast as her crappy sore body could carry her, Thor looked at her a little wide eyed, glancing at Fandral to see if it was something that he had done.

"Guess what?" She said stopping in front of Thor with a smile. "He's going to teach me how to shoot people," she stated pointing at Fandral with a serious expression on her face. "And it's going to be awesome," she nodded looking up at Thor.

"Not people," Fandral said from behind them. He'd never said anything like that.

"Well," Thor looked at Fandral with a sort high up grin, his surprise was way better than Fandral's promise of shooting people. "I got you Earth candy," he said giving her a bag of a bunch of candy.

Cora took the bag away from him slowly, a shocked innocent look covered her face, did he just say candy? Looking into the bag she saw that it was full of candy that she had loved on Earth, looking back up at Thor with newfound respect, her eyes looked pretty huge.

"Where did you get this?" She asked looking up at him still curious.

"Tony gave it to me before we left Earth, but I had forgotten about it until now," he explained giving her a nod and a smile.

"Tony did?" She questioned with a sort of falter in her voice. Thor nodded and watched to see what her reaction was going to be. "He's awesome, you're awesome, you're both awesome!" She cheered. For a second Thor looked over at Fandral with a sort of triumphant grin, as if he was saying, _'I win,' _to which Fandral sighed and looked away feeling slightly defeated.

"So Cora," Thor started to say something before she cut him off with a shout.

"Here try this one," she said loudly. Pulling out suckers she gave one to Thor, turned around and gave one to Fandral, who looked at it oddly, and then caught sight of Loki way in the back of the hallway. "Hey Loki," she said getting a serious face all if a sudden. "And Ara," a smile broke out on her face.

With newfound energy Cora ran down the hallway for a few feet before she flapping her wings weakly, letting her glide to where they were walking slowly towards her. Ara was looking at her a little worried while Loki had a different sort of look on his face.

"Lady Cora," Ara greeted with a small bow to her. Cora shooed his bow away like one might a fly.

"Here," she said putting a sucker in his hand as well. She then looked at Loki, her smile faltering a little when she saw that he looked a little less than happy to see her, but it didn't look like he was really looking at her.

Following his eyes Cora saw that they were looking at Thor and Fandral with well, hatred, and it didn't seem like he was holding anything back, it was one of those harsh kinds of glares, the ones that might mean. _'Holy Moses I'm going to kill you for messing with my stuff.' _That's what it looked like.

"Loki," Cora said his name gently to catch his attention. His head snapped down to meet her gaze, softening slightly when he saw how close she was to him, but they couldn't kiss or do anything here, Thor would accuse Loki of something worse. "This is sweet and it will make you smile," she whispered putting a piece of candy in his hand.

When Loki had first turned the corner to see that Cora was with Thor and Fandral he was angry, then she'd ran towards him, so it made it a little better, though there was still something that bothered him about Fandral. He still had his eyes on Cora even as she was running to another man, was it the look of determination that was stitched into his face? Loki didn't like that expression.

Looking down at Cora he couldn't help but soften up a little, the way she looked at him made his anger falter, for some reason she seemed to looked slightly worried about him. Why? There was no reason to worry; she should worry about what he was going to do to her when they were finally alone with no one to bother them.

Soon, he would have her soon, and she would finally be his. Always and forever.

Hearing what she said made him smirk at her, he wanted to say that she was sweet and she made him smile, but that wasn't going to happen while Thor was walking towards them.

"Shall we go meet mother and father now?" Thor questioned coming up behind Cora. "I still have another surprise for you, but it'll be here at the end of the feast," Thor said with a large grin. Clearly he was excited for whatever he had gotten for her.

"Another one?" Cora questioned turning around to meet his gaze. Loki glared at Thor, he was planning something. "Let's go," she smiled running back in the direction that she had come from.

With a small growl Loki followed behind them, plotting further along, maybe some time during the feast he would be able to get alone with her, then they could at least kiss, oh how he had wanted to kiss her earlier. Perhaps he could cause a commotion about something which would distract Ara, and then he could steal Cora to a more secluded part of the room.

Watching from afar Loki looked at Cora bitterly as she got along just fine with his _'parents,' _his mother immediately felt her natural mothering nature spark, because everyone knows it, Cora is a mess. Even at her age she needed someone to take care of her, or at least check up on her, and that was something that his mother never had with her sons. Loki's '_father' _thought that Cora was brave for doing what she did for Earth, so he approved of her as well, though there was a small glint of something in his eyes that said otherwise, maybe he didn't like it because she looked so young.

Finally the guests started to arrive, it didn't feel like very many for Loki, of course he'd been to feasts like these all his life, but for Cora, she looked a little frazzled to see that there were so many people that wanted to meet her. Still happy to see everyone, but at the same time it looked as if she wanted to escape, which was something that he could help with.

It had only been a couple hours and Cora already felt like she could sit in a chair and pass out, obviously these people had been too many feasts such as these, for they hardly looked tired at all. Thor was off greeting people and laughing it up with his friends, Fandral was among them. There were so many people that had introduced themselves to her that she didn't remember any of them save for one.

The man's name was Gatty, for some reason, and she could only remember that because it reminded her of that word fatty, which she thought was what he had first said when he introduced himself.

Everyone seemed to really like her wings, they kept calling them lovely, and elegant, and useful, and so many other things that Cora had grown tired of agreeing with.

It was much like a birthday party, or something like that, where everyone knew everyone, and they went off in their own little groups, except that there were no phones, and everyone seemed to be eating something or drinking something. Cora stopped eating a long time ago, she was already fit to bursting, and they still insisted that she try some of the decadent food.

Looking around the room frantically for a familiar face Cora spotted Loki sitting alone, she did like where he was though. He seemed to have found a very secluded part of the area where the feast was, there only seemed to be one person there next to him, and the guy next to him was asleep, so no commotion there.

" Hello little bird," Loki greeted without opening his eyes. He was sitting in a chair against the wall, leaning his head back again the wall lazily with his legs jutting out as he lounged like an old man watching T.V would. Cora couldn't help but think that he looked quite handsome sitting there like that and she did still have to say thank you for earlier, so maybe. Glancing around to make sure that Ara wasn't there she took timid steps towards him.

She wondered if she should just go and do it, how was she supposed to get his attention if he wasn't going to open his eyes? How was she supposed to get him to look at her? Suddenly an idea popped into her head that she was sure would make him open his eyes, now if she'd thought about it further she would have come to the conclusion that it was a bad idea.

Sitting down on his leg gently she watched as Loki's eyes snapped open very quickly, looking at her with slightly shocked eyes she looked up at him innocently, she just wanted to say thank you, there was nothing else on her mind. Since Loki didn't seem to want anything else but her, she saw no other way to say thank you except for what came to mind; it wasn't offensive to her or anything. She did like him like that a bit.

Now on the other hand, there were so many thoughts running through Loki's mind that he couldn't even reach out and grab one if they were on slips of paper.

"I just want to," she whispered looking up at him as he leaned over her. "Say thank you," she murmured kissing him on the lips softly. It was a quick, cute kind of kiss, something a child might give to their playmate; the only thing that Cora had made the mistake of doing was giving it to Loki.

She'd closed her eyes when she kissed him, and slowly pulled away, opening her eyes to see that his were full of an emotion that she didn't know what to do with, his eyes were full of want. Not knowing how to react to that Cora tried to make a quick getaway, kissing him had probably not been the best idea she'd ever had in her life.

With a quick tug Cora was back on Loki's leg, save this time she was a lot closer to his chest, and his face was a lot closer to her than before.

"Loki," Cora whispered his name softly. She meant it as a way to wake him from whatever spell he was under, but it kind of did the exact opposite, Loki couldn't hold it in anymore and finally gave in to whatever he had been holding back.

Without any warning Loki pulled Cora's lips to his, she made a small noise that sounded almost like a whimper, but Loki didn't care. Running his hands down her sides Cora tried to get away from him, he was so rough with her, she didn't want this. Pushing her puny hands against his chest she felt him shift his position slightly too where he turned them around and pinned her against the chair he had been sitting in.

Still kissing her roughly he held her hands down so she couldn't do anything against him, breaking the kiss he went for her neck, kissing it gently and smirking when he felt her shiver beneath his lips.

"Please stop," Cora whimpered closing her eyes tightly. She'd never been kissed that way before, she'd never had anyone attack her like he had, there was a part of her that felt excited about it, but everything else screamed stop.

Loki looked over to her face and froze, she looked so vulnerable it almost made him want to continue, but he knew he had to stop now. They were still had a feast, and if she was any louder they would get caught, for now he felt a little satisfied, it would keep him going for at least a few more days.

Sighing silently Loki moved away enough to where she could get up, which she did quickly, looking at him cautiously she began to walk away from him, only to have him grab her wrist and pull her back towards him slightly.

"Soon you will enjoy this," he stated looking into her eyes. Cora looked at him as he let go of her and shooed her away with his hand, smirking at her as she walked into someone. She apologized, taking one last look at him before disappearing from his sight.

Right away she looked for Ara, whom she found leaning against one of the outside doors, he looked at her calmly as soon as she came into view.

"Ara can you take me to my room?" She asked in a shy and embarrassed voice. "I don't know where it is," she mumbled looking at the ground.

"You are not staying for Thor's surprise," Ara asked gently, she looked a little shaken up for some reason.

"I just," she stopped, trying to find the right words. "Feel really ill right now, my head is aching," she explained looking up at him hopefully.

"Then I will go tell Thor of your predicament," he said disappearing back into the room for a few minutes.

Cora waited outside looking around at the other guards her seemed to be pretty content with ignoring her, she might as well have been a statue, or a fly on the windshield. Touching her lips thoughtfully Cora remembered the kisses that had happened moments before, for some reason her lips had felt like they were on fire, she didn't know you could do that with a kiss.

"He understands and says that you can still see your surprise in the morning," Ara said coming back into vision.

"Thank you," Cora said truly thankful that she didn't have to go back into the mess that these people called a feast. Ara then offered his arm to her, which she took with a smile up towards him, and took her back to her room.

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**So there's the chapter, tell me what you think,the button is right down there, in the nether regions...So yeah, I don't feel any older at all, but that is quite alright with me.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Tell me what you think of the surprise that I added in, I was a little wary of it, but I have an idea to run off of it later. Enjoy the chapter.**

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The next morning Cora was woken up by loud knocks on her door, she'd really slept well that night, which was good considering that she was still getting her strength back.

"Cora," Thor's voice shouted from the other side of the door loudly. "It's time for breakfast," he said loudly. Cora wondered faintly if Asgardians got hangovers, they all seemed to be drinking the night before; didn't they wake up the next morning dead? Apparently not, with the way that Thor sounded it seemed as if he was just fine.

"What's wrong with you people," Cora muttered getting out of bed slowly. She lazily walked over to what she remembered as her closet, opening it to be bombarded with clothes. She'd never seen this many different dresses in her life, and they all looked like they weighed a ton, not knowing how to react Cora kind of just stood there for a minute, staring at the dresses in all of their glory.

"Your surprise is waiting for you at breakfast?" Thor added after waiting for her for a little bit.

This ignited a spark of excitement in Cora, she'd totally forgotten about the surprise. With newfound vigor she picked a simple light grey dress that went down to a little bit past her knees, it had a spaghetti strap sort of thing going on, which was just how Cora liked it. The less material there was the faster she could fly, and it didn't feel heavy on her shoulder either.

"Let's go," she shouted opening the door cheerfully and full of energy. Thor smiled down at her and led the way to a different dining hall than the one that they had the feast in, just how many different types of room were in the palace? Once Cora had found an abandoned castle in London, she had been flying around enjoying the scenery of mass trees when she saw the crumbling manor. Immediately she wished that she had had her camera with her, for she wanted to show Tony, though upon thinking about it further Pepper would have been a better idea for that.

The old castle had so many room she got a little lost in it for a while, even though it was falling apart it was still hard to get around, how was she supposed to remember where she was if everything looked the same and so different at the same time? This was how she felt when she was led around Thor's home, as soon as she got to one place she forgot how she had gotten there in the first place, even all the hallways looked the same. How did more people not get lost?

Opening the doors to the dining hall Cora looked to see who all was eating. There were a few people that she didn't know, a very bored looking Loki, who she didn't look at very long, Fandral, and a man with a large beard.

"What's the surprise?" Cora asked looking back at Thor curiously. There was nothing big at the table, no candy, or special food, and there didn't seem to be anything that was trying to hide in the room, she wondered faintly if he even had a surprise for her.

"It's right there," he said pointing at someone who was sitting at the table. Cora gazed at the man he was pointing at before she looked back at Thor bored, it was a lame surprise, she didn't even know who the man was.

"Who's that dude?" She asked giving him a blank stare.

"Nash," Thor called over to the man. The guy looked up and smiled over at the both of them, making Cora look at him oddly, her first thought was, _'stranger danger,_' she liked meeting new people, but after last night her brain was still trying to catch up with all the new names and faces.

"You must be Cora," Nash said coming over to them with a kind smile. With brown hair, and calm blue eyes Cora decided that he must be a nice dude if he was friends with Thor, so she might as well get to know him, but man was he tall. He was at least a foot taller than her, and that just wasn't fair.

"That's me," she said with a cheerful smile.

"I've heard so much about you from Thor," he said in a kind voice.

"Show her already," Thor said pushing Nash's shoulder lightly. With a small chuckle Cora looked between the two of them curiously, show her what? Glancing around to see that most everyone in the room was looking at them Cora caught Loki's eyes on her and blushed lightly remembering what had happened the night before.

Nash smiled down at Cora before something behind him moved which made Cora's eyes widen in shock and bewilderment, he had wings!

Big brown wings stretched out from his back as he yawned slightly; letting his wings out to their full length he glanced down to see that Cora was kind of just staring at him, looking from his wings to his face and hair.

"I looked all over Asgard, and finally I found someone from your planet," Thor said proudly looking down at Cora's face. He then walked away, satisfied with the reaction that he had gotten from her.

"Wow!" Cora exclaimed running a circle around him. There was another Averian in the room with her; she hadn't seen another of her own kind for many years. "This is so cool," she shouted poking his wings and petting them gently. Backing up quickly when he flexed them out towards her.

With a laugh she opened her own wings as well, letting her white feathers catch the sun slightly, making them shine even more pure than they did before.

"Oh, white wings, that's rare," Nash commented giving her a questioning look. "How old are you Cora?" He asked looking at her calmly.

"Well I was on Earth for about fifteen years, and before then I think I was nine," she murmured thinking back to how old she was when her class ditched her.

"So you've not gotten your second Talon yet?" He looked at her a little shocked.

"No?" She said cautiously. Was it bad that she hadn't?

So you don't know what a Talon is do you? Didn't think so, it shall be explained straight away. You know that Averians have powers, and you know that as they grow older they gain new powers; well they call these powers Talons, for it is like they are getting a weapon. Most Averians base their age off of Talons, which most Averians get so often, Nash himself was a proud man of three Talons. So imagine his surprise when he hears that there is an Averian girl with only one.

"You're so young," he mused with a funny sort of smile.

"I'm not that young," Cora countered defensively. "In human years I'm twenty four," she said looking at him accusingly. She didn't want to be treated like a child by someone of her own kind, her first urge, now that she saw his wings, was to fly.

"Being young isn't bad," Nash said with a carefree grin.

Cora looked at him with a funny looking frown before walking over to the table and grabbing some food, devouring it quickly she then proceeded towards a window. Throwing open the doors she looked back at him defiantly before jumping out them, coming back into vision she stared at him.

"Come fly with me," she stated looking at him with a sort of childish glare.

"Alright," Nash said with a small chuckle.

Walking briskly towards the window he flapped his wings gently and took to the air, laughing playfully as he flew right past Cora, making her dart out of the way with a look of angry shock on her face. She hadn't flown with anybody since she had lived back home, she'd forgotten what it was like, with a grin she flew right at Nash, using her speed against him she flew past him sticking her tongue out playfully.

Watching from the window Loki looked at Nash with hatred, he didn't seem to have any intent on taking Cora away from him, but just the way that the man could spend so much more time with her than he could bugged him. This kiss from the night before had obviously made Cora wary of him, why just the sight of him made her cheeks light up cutely, he wanted to see more of her more often, but no, Thor just had to find another Averian for her.

With a growl of anger Loki got up from the table and walked towards his room quickly, Ara followed behind him at dutifully as ever, glancing out the window at Cora once more before they disappeared down the hall. Ara was happy for Cora, she looked so happy in the sky.

Striding quickly past Cora's room Loki got an idea, one that he was sure would catch her attention, but it wouldn't be as rough as the night before, it was not a very elaborate plan, but it would still work all the same. It was a little bit risky, but he wanted her so badly, the night before had done nothing to satisfy his want, it had only made the desire for her stronger, he wanted to hold her in his arms and feel her small form shiver beneath his kisses. He thought it was cute, and innocent.

Coming to his room finally Loki initiated the first step of the plan.

"Ara," he said without looking at his guard. Immediately he regretted saying that first, Cora was rubbing off on him, he'd actually said the guard's name, Cora's happy face popped into his head quickly, she would have a shocked but cheerful face if she'd heard that.

"Yes?" Ara answered as equally shocked as him.

"Do not bother me today," he grumbled going into his room and closing his door.

"Of course," he said taking his post next to his door stonily.

After hanging out with Nash for a whole day Cora was tired. Nash was a water Averian, Cora envied how he easily wafted through the water like a fish with feathers, he offered to teach her how to swim, but she refused him very strongly. When he asked her why she told him it was nothing, and even though he knew that was a lie he didn't ask anything else of her.

Even when Cora's mind wandered off in thought he was patient and waited for her to come back to reality, she imagined that this was what it felt like to have an older brother, a real older brother. Bruce and Tony had always felt like family, but Nash was of her own race, he was kind, and fun to be with.

Mostly her mind drifted off to thoughts of Loki, the feeling of his lips on hers, the heat that she felt afterwards, what was that? At first she was tempted to ask Nash, it seemed like she could talk to the man about anything, but she was too embarrassed to talk to anyone about it, what would they think if they knew that she was kissing Loki?

"Hey Nash?" Cora said looking up to him as they alighted onto a balcony.

"Yes?" He asked looking at her kindly. He'd just met the girl today, but she'd already grown on him, reminding him of her little sister from back home, everything between them seemed pretty mutual.

"Are you going to stay?" She questioned with hopeful big eyes. Nash almost wanted to hug the girl, she was so cute, innocent, curious, carefree, and it seemed like everyone she met washer friend already, or it might be that they just didn't know how to respond to her.

"I'll be staying in a lower level of the palace, you can come visit me whenever you want," he explained patting her head like one would a child. "You know you remind me so much of my little sister," he blurted out feeling a little big headed.

"Really?" Cora said looking at him curiously.

"She would be older than you though, you know because, you're so little," he said shaking his head gently.

Looking at him irritated she frowned, making a funny face again. With a grumbled reply she walked away fake angrily, waving him off she ran to where she thought her room might be.

Nash watched the back of Cora disappear around a corner; he didn't think there would ever be another Averian on Asgard, but there she was, and a white winged one at that, if he ever made it home to tell his friends they would be jealous.

Turning yet another corner Cora sighed in relief when she saw her room, with a smile she threw her fist into the air happily, she could now make it back to her room from where ever she had landed with Nash, it sounded a lot less great than it felt, but Cora was just happy she hadn't gotten lost.

Opening the door with a sigh Cora closed it behind her gently, with all the flying she did today all she wanted to do was lie down on her bed, cuddle up with her super soft pillows, and pass out. Unfortunately someone else had other plans, for as soon as she shut the door Cora felt hands push her onto the bed and pin her arms down.

Looking up into mischievous eyes Cora gasped softly, how had Loki gotten away without Ara noticing? Where was Ara?

Opening her mouth to say something Loki smirked at her.

"Shh, don't say a word," he whispered seductively. Cora looked at him a little oddly before she started to squirm beneath his grasp. Leaning down slowly Loki kissed Cora gently and slowly, he didn't care whether or not she returned it, everything was part of his plan.

"Loki," Cora got out between kisses. He barely gave her enough time to breathe with all his kisses, but she had to admit that she didn't mind this kind of kiss; it was kind and almost loving.

Moving from lips to neck Loki started to whisper to her threateningly, reminding her of his naturally rough and controlling personality.

"Only look at me," he murmured onto her neck.

She shivered every time he kissed her neck, still holding her hands down with his she could do nothing against him, the feeling of his lips on her sensitive skin made her blush darkly. How was she supposed to react? What was she supposed to say?

"Only smile for me, do not forget that you are mine," he said this a little more darkly than his other whispered comments.

Normally a comment like that would bug her, she didn't belong to anyone, and she definitely didn't belong to him, but for some reason she didn't mind. It felt as if there was a sort of spell that had been cast over her, she wasn't fighting back, maybe it was because she liked him, or perhaps it was the feeling that he elicited from her.

Coming away from her neck he smirked down at her blushing and breathless face, almost unable to hold himself back he tore himself away from her with a deep growl, disappearing in a shimmer of light Cora looked around the room dazed.

Had that really just happened?

"Lady Cora?" A knock on her door snapped her out of her thoughts quite quickly. Taking a few deep breaths she got up from herbed shakily, was that why Loki had left so fast? He'd heard someone walking down the hallway?

"Yes?" Cora questioned opening the door to see that Ara was standing outside of it. He looked at the state she was in, red cheeks, slightly bewildered face, immediately he thought the worst; he was missing one slightly insane Asgardian.

"Has Loki come to see you?" He asked calmly, no need to freak out the poor girl; perhaps it was something else that was bothering her.

Cora froze wondering if she should say something about what had happened to her, deciding against it strongly Cora shook her head, she wasn't going to tell anyone that Loki had kissed her the past two nights.

"Are you alright? Your face is red," Ara said looking at her with a slightly worried expression.

"I'm fine, it's just the cool night air," Cora muttered flustered. He knew already didn't he? That's why he was asking so much, she was so easy to read, why did she even try to hide it?

"Okay, get a good night's rest then, good night Lady Cora," Ara said bowing slightly before walking away.

Cora let out a sigh of relief when she closed the door, going back to her bed she hugged one of the pillows like it was a teddy bear and she was a little girl again, all her thoughts were in a mess.

It was all Loki. Her mind was going through everything, Loki this, and Loki that. Always it came to the conclusion that next time she would kiss him back, she was starting to like him more and more, and she didn't know why. He was mean, controlling, and selfish; she couldn't understand why she would like him.

Perhaps it was the way that he had treated her when he was worried about her, or tonight, how he was so gentle with her, besides the comments that he made of course. Tomorrow she would make an effort t hang out with him tomorrow, they would be best buds, and then maybe she could figure out why she liked him.

Yeah, that was a good plan. So with a fresh smile on her face, and determination backing her up Cora went to sleep quickly, dreaming faintly of the feeling of Loki's lips on her neck. There was still a stray thought in her mind that wouldn't leave her alone, when Loki was kissing her she felt excited for some reason, was that normal?

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**Review, please and thank you...Yeah, that's about all I ever put down here, never thought I would make it to chapter fifteen, this is exciting stuff right here!**


	16. Chapter 16

**New chapter! Yeah, this one took a little longer to come out, my apologies. You guys should like this one though, it's all about our two favorite characters, anyway, enjoy the read.**

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The next day Cora set out to find Loki, Nash said he had other business to attend to, so it was a perfect day for Loki stalking, not that she would call it stalking, but that's what it felt like she was doing. Every time she thought about the night before she blushed darkly and had to wait until her face went down a few shades, if his aim was to make her think about him until her brain turned to mush, it had definitely worked.

Finally tired of looking for him Cora asked where the garden was, Thor had told her about one that they had in the palace the day before, telling her that it had plants similar to Earth if she felt that she missed them. Which she kind of did, or perhaps it was that she missed Earth all together, she missed the fact that she could travel all around it without falling into space, she missed walking on the street and meeting random people who had stories to tell.

It seemed that everyone in the castle knew who everyone else was, and therefore felt no need to talk when they walked by each other, and Cora just thought that everyone needed a hello, no matter how many people there were. So now that no one said hello to her, she found that she said hello even louder in order to make up for the silence that they gave her.

Walking quickly Cora went in the direction that one of the guards had pointed out to her, she just hoped that she was going to right way, when he'd first pointed out the right direction she went the wrong way and the guard barely caught her. So with a laugh she ran off the right direction, very much embarrassed, she thought that Loki would have laughed at her and blushed even deeper.

At last Cora came upon a door that seemed to lead outside, so she ran through the door and was immediately welcome into the garden by a bunch of green everywhere.

It was a magnificent sight, vines, and flowers, and trees, and bushes all over, benches for sitting, and there even seemed to be a pond. Cora wondered faintly how everything stayed alive, but that thought was quickly shot out of her mind when she saw a type of flower that was unknown to her, smelling it deeply she expected it to smell of heaven or something awesome like that. With a cough she pulled away from it quickly, it smelled like butt!

"What a deceiving flower," she cried gagging as the smell seemed to want to follow her.

Following the sound of water Cora soon found a fountain in the middle of a small courtyard, looking around at everything she almost wanted to call it cute, until she saw the dreaded flower that smelled of butt in the corner.

"Demon flower," she muttered looking at the darned flower angrily. Seriously though, what kind of flower had that smell?

The fountain gurgled with such a welcoming sound Cora had to jump in it, opening her wings to catch the stray drop she splashed around before slipping on the slick concrete beneath the water, it was kind of slimy with algae, so she couldn't carry all the blame. With a shriek, and then a laugh Cora fell in the fountain with a small eruption of water. Quite quickly someone came out of the bushes of the garden, and ran up to her.

"Are you all right my lady?" The man asked offering his hand to help her up.

"Ninja," Cora muttered under her breath accepting his hand. "Ah, yes," she said regaining her semi-polite attitude. "I'm fine," she smiled happily. She didn't mind one bit that she was soaked through her clothes, now if she had been wearing a white dress she might ask for him not to look so she could run away at the speed of light, but today's dress was light pink.

"I will get some new clothes for you," the man said with urgency. Running off before Cora could mutter another word she looked after him, at least he was nice.

"I'm not going to change if you bring them," she murmured to herself. Ever since she had been in the palace everyone looked like they had just stepped out of a magazine, even the servants looked awesome. They wanted her to look nice as well, which was something that she had never cared for, so the fact that she was wet, and had fallen in the fountain like a buffoon didn't bother her one bit. Later when she felt the chill of water on her skin it would bother her, but for now, no such thing would make her angry.

Changing her thoughts to Loki Cora walked out of the fountain and began to walk in a circle around the courtyard, not that she noticed she was doing this, but a few other garden workers whispered amongst themselves as they took note of what she was doing.

So Loki seemed to like her, and she liked him, but he was hard to understand. For one moment it almost seemed like he was sweet, and he kissed her gently, on the other hand he had attacked her the night of the feast and he seemed to glare at her whenever she was with someone else. Now what did she think about Loki?

At first her mind drew blanks, then his face floated into her mind, and she thought _'handsome,'_ but that wasn't the only thing she liked about him. She liked his tricks and plans, they were fun to try and work out, she liked the way he went for what he wanted, she liked the way his lips felt on hers, and she liked the way he held her as if she would disappear if he let go. She did like him problem solved, but she had to make sure of some things first.

Stopping shortly Cora jumped into the air and flew to where she guessed Loki's room would be, it was her turn to initiate her own plan, if you could hear her thought process you might say she had some good ideas.

The wind felt nice running through her damp hair, her dress clenched to her sides like sticky tape onto paper, it outlined her curves nicely, and that would help her plan.

Step one of her plan was to break into Loki's room and put a note on his bed, telling him to come find her, she thought it was a good idea, if he went to find her she knew that he was serious about her, simple as that.

Soon she was on the side of the palace where all the balcony's seemed to be overlooking the kingdom, Cora looked for her own but failed to find it amongst so many, jeez they all looked the same anyway, how would anyone tell them apart? From the distance she was at Cora could see someone was out on their balcony, leaning against the railing and looking down, perhaps lost in thought, or maybe they needed to barf.

Flying silently so as to not disturb them Cora almost dived down when she saw that the figure was Loki, what was she going to do for step one now? He was right there!

Changing her plans very quickly Cora flew right at him, he looked up at her with a blank expression, but there seemed to be shock in his eyes, she didn't know this was going to work or not, but whatever. She flew up next to him, taking his face in her hands lightly, she kissed him on the lips deeply, licking his lip with her tongue seductively, or so she guessed, she'd seen it in movies before.

It must have been quite a sight, an angel, clothed in innocence, hanging in the hair, kissing a demon, clothed in dark colors, leaning over the railing to meet her. Two different worlds, two completely different people, sharing a kiss.

Pulling away breathlessly Cora didn't look him in the eyes, unsure of how she would react to what she saw.

"I'm in the garden," she whispered into his ear. Before he could grab onto her or do anything else she was flying away, trying to control her breathing she flew out of sight as fast as she could, back to the garden to hide.

Back on the balcony Loki licked his lips remembering the sweet kiss he had received from the women he wished to claim, he didn't know what she was planning, but she'd definitely gotten his attention. Where was he going? The garden of course, it was time to catch his angel once and for all.

Cora made it back to the garden quickly, finding that she remembered where to go when she was frantic with worry and shock. What had she just done? That wasn't the plan at all. Going back to the fountain she found some clothes sitting next to it, nice man that garden guy was, but she wasn't going to put it on. Instead she walked back into the fountain, trying to cool the heat that wouldn't seem to leave her face alone, and soaking her damp dress further, what was she going to do when he came?

Pulling her knees up to her chest Cora closed her wings around her slightly, what was she going to do when she saw him? For a second she wished that he wouldn't show up, and maybe he wouldn't she didn't know if he was going to, but of course who could refuse someone after a kiss like that.

"Cora!" She jumped when she heard his voice shout.

Loki had made it to the garden without much trouble, he'd left Ara back at his room, the guard still thought that he was in his room, eventually he would find that he was gone, just as the night before, but that might take a little while.

He'd shouted for her and there was a small splash, he'd been to the garden when he was younger, so he knew his way around slightly, the noise had come from the direction of the fountain.

When she'd kissed him on the balcony he was so surprised he didn't know what to say, he wanted to grab her and pin her small body beneath his as he ravished her, but as fast as she had appeared she had left. Leaving him with a single whispered hint.

Running towards the fountain he found it empty, but there was something else that seemed to give her away, there were wet footprints leading towards the maze that she probably didn't know was there. After about ten steps the feet disappeared, but he knew where she was now, he could hear her hit a dead end and gasp as she came to meet a thorny wall of bushes.

Smirking he ran in that direction, catching sight of her running into another pathway he followed like a cat would follow a mouse that was trying to get away. Suddenly he had an idea that would be fun for him, and possibly torturous for her, but after she had left him on the balcony he didn't care if she liked the idea or not.

Appearing in front of her using his magic she gasped and turned to run, but he was too fast for her, he pulled her back into him and sucked on her neck roughly, making her whimper and squirm beneath him.

"You dare tease me," he whispered into her ear just as she had done to him. "I'll give you thirty seconds to get away," he said pushing her away from him. As soon as he let her go she ran away from him as fast as her legs would carry her, which made Loki chuckle darkly as he watched her run from him.

"Twenty nine, thirty," he mumbled running off in pursuit of her. It really wasn't fair, the game they were playing, Loki knew how to get out of the maze, it had been a game for him when he was a child, but Cora had no idea if she was going to come to a dead end or not, and it wasn't hard to listen for her footfalls.

Catching her in his arms as she ran by Loki kissed her deeply this time, licking her lips just as she had done with him he forced his tongue into her mouth before pulling away and letting her go. She looked back at him, cheeks scarlet, breathing harshly; he liked seeing her like this because of him.

"Thirty seconds," he said motioning for her to run.

At first Cora had been a little afraid of what would happen every time that he caught her, but after the first three times she found out that he would either kiss her, do something with her neck, or just holding her close to him. So it was a game for both of them, she'd only gotten away once, and that was because she had flown, and he had proceeded to bite her neck as a punishment, so she knew, no flying.

It was a weird sort of game, most people could tell, but Loki seemed to be having fun catching her each time, and she even laughed a bit when she ran away from him, sometimes she kissed him instead, and that would usually follow with him chasing her down faster than previous times.

The last time he caught her they were back in the courtyard, finally the maze was over, it was fun, but everything looked the same.

Wrapping his arms around her he sat on the bench, holding her in his lap he nipped her neck gently, marking her as his finally.

"You are too easy to catch," he murmured kissing her neck.

"You cheated," she said leaning back into him. She felt rather comfortable with him now, and she was too tired to try and get away.

"Tell me how I cheated," he said in a breathless voice.

"I don't know," she whimpered as he bit her. The biting was weird, a little painful, but as long as he didn't draw blood she was okay with it, besides, the whimpering seemed to excite him, for some reason.

He smirked against her skin before pulling away from her neck and just holding her for a little bit, he seemed content with just having her therewith him, but she was a mess of thoughts, what was he going to do next?

By now her dress was dry, all the running around and everything else seemed to have been the perfect way for her to dry off. There was just one thing that she wanted to ask Loki, and she wasn't sure how to say it, it would be weird wouldn't it? She'd never asked anyone if they loved her before.

"Loki?" Cora asked in a soft voice.

"Yes little bird?" He questioned not moving from her.

Before she could say anything else they could both hear someone rush into the garden.

"Are you here Cora?" It was Thor's voice. Loud and clear, Loki sighed, placing her on the bench and getting up away from her, when she moved to stand up as well he looked back at her sternly.

"Later, little bird," he said before he disappeared in a shimmer of light.

Cora growled in frustration before Thor walked into the courtyard, he saw her and grinned like he always did, she wondered faintly why in the world he was always so happy gung ho, but then again he was pretty much a king, so that explained it.

"Yes?" She looked over at him with curious eyes.

"What's on your neck?" He questioned catching sight of the many hickeys that Loki had left behind. Cora panicked, trying to find something to say.

"Thorn bushes, I was running through the maze," she said in a rush, what would Thor say if he found out?

"Oh, well come with me, I had some good food made for you today," he said leading her away happily. Good thing Thor was the brightest bulb in the bunch; perhaps she could wear a bandana to hide the marks from others.

Walking out of the garden Cora decided that she would come back later, at night maybe, would Loki be back there?

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**So, what did you think. Review if you would be so kind, I do quite like them. I need them is more like it, otherwise I feel like the chapter was a failure...button, right down there.**


	17. Chapter 17

**New chapter, this one took a little longer because I went on a trip to Colorado with my family, so I was doing some major brainstorming on the way, and have been writing on the way to hikes, and other stuff. There's a lot packed into this chapter, so please tell me what you think of it.**

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She didn't go back to the garden that night, not that it mattered all that much Loki wasn't there anyway, he was still in phase two of his plan, which was to ignore her until she was so desperate for his attention that she came to him by herself. Which had already happened, but this time he would be the sole reason for it, for it was events like their day in the garden that he craved, it was times like those that he longed for.

Alas, it was Nash that kept Cora from going back to the garden that night, he asked her to help him figure something out, he seemed pretty desperate about it, so Cora had agreed to help him, even though she had no idea what he needed help with.

As it turned out it seemed that he just wanted to spend some time with her, and that was fine, but she really wished that she could have been somewhere else, she waited for him to be done with her for the night so she could go back to the garden. Though it didn't seem to work out like that, she found herself waking in the morning in her own bed, wondering what the heck had happened for her to pass out so suddenly like that.

That next morning it turned out that Nash needed her help again, and she wanted to say no, but he looked like he really needed the help when she spoke to him, so she told him to give her a moment while she changed into something clean. It only took her a moment before she came out in another simple dress, some of the things they had gotten for her in the closet were just not fit for her to wear, she didn't want to carry the weight of a darned dress around all day.

"Okay, let's go," she said with a smile breaking out onto her face. Just the fact that he had wings, just like her was something for her to smile about; she really wasn't alone anymore was she? It's a nice feeling that anyone would want to have if they had lost their family or felt that they didn't belong, so this was good for her.

Together they flew down to where he was staying, oh how she loved flying with someone next to her, joking around with her, laughing with her, it's what she imagined a real Averian brother might do with her, or at least a real Averian friend.

By real this means that Cora had once had an imaginary friend, she named him Santa, because she heard that Santa was a cool guy that brought presents to people if they were good, and she wanted a cool friend. She imagined that he had wings, white ones like hers, and he was a kid like she was, they were the best of friends until she watched him fly away with the wind, telling her that he had to give gifts to the rest of the Earth. That was after she realized that Santa was actually a fat guy with a white beard that didn't even exist.

They landed in front of his housing arrangements to see the pond next to his house shimmering in the light; Cora followed a small river going from the pond into his house with curiosity, giving him a questioning stare.

"Since I'm a water Averian I need water next to me, sometimes I sleep in it, very relaxing," he said giving her a convincing smile. To which she responded with a laugh and a shrug of her shoulders, giving him a thumbs up that he looked at oddly.

"So what are we going to do today?" She asked cheerfully. Nash smiled down at her; it almost looked a little sickening before it changed to a small grin.

"I need you to help me grind some plants for medicine," he explained, telling her that he was, in fact, a doctor. He mentioned quite sternly that he needed the medicine for something important that he was doing in three days, and he said that if she helped she could be a part of it, promising her that it was very exciting, he promised her.

"Okay," she said getting to work.

After two days of hard work Cora had figured out that there were right and wrong ways to mash up medicine, she was shocked to figure out that some types of medicine seem to blow up if you apply to much pressure to them. Nash and Cora grew closer, and Cora figured out that Nash had had a little sister that would be about her age now, but she had passed away after getting her second Talon, which Cora felt terrible about, for he seemed so sad when she'd asked him.

"She was a nice girl, always willing to help, like you," he said with a fond smile.

"What was her second Talon?" Cora asked curiously. She'd discovered that Nash's Talon's were breathing under water, duplicating objects, and controlling shadows, nothing significant as he told her with a disapproving frown, though she assured him that they were cool enough.

"Her first one was controlling light, opposite of mine," he said with a laugh. "And her second one was uhm," he paused trying to figure out how to word it. "Controlling plants, making them grow faster and such," he murmured pointing to a pot of herbs he was growing.

"Cool," Cora said with a grin.

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully before going back to work.

The two days she was working she saw Loki a grand total of two times, the first time he was at breakfast, and the second time she caught a glimpse of him as she flew towards Nash's house. It was driving her insane, she wanted to ask him so many things, well she really only wanted to ask him one thing, but it was something so big that she felt that she couldn't hold it in much longer.

It was the night before Nash's big day, the day he said was important for him or whatever, that Cora was sitting up in bed thinking about everything. About Nash and his sister, about Loki, Thor, Ara, everyone on Earth, her second Talon, she was really thinking about everything, or anything that came to mind anyway.

Her thought process seemed to be stuck on her second Talon for a while, what was hers going to be? She did agree that Nash's Talons were lame, not that she told him that, but they were kind of, weak, and unhelpful. When she was still a young bird, before she got stuck on Earth, Cora learned that most white winged Averians have really powerful powers, if they even live long enough to get them that is, she also learned that white is a rare wing color, and that most of her classmates disliked her because the teachers treated her differently, even if only slightly.

Drifting off into thoughts about different powers that she might have Cora didn't notice when her white feathered wings seemed to be turning a light yellow, shining with a light glow that seemed to illuminate the whole room. She also didn't notice that her hair seemed to glow right along with her wings almost as if she'd invented a type of glow stick hair dye, it looked very interesting, a little kid might call it wicked. Now since she didn't notice the other things about her that were changing she also didn't notice the small orbs of light that seemed to be popping up around the room, like light bulbs without glass or circuits.

Now when she did finally look up she noticed the orbs and jumped backwards on her bed slightly, surprised and a little alarmed at what seemed to be all around her in the room, even her skin seemed to give off a faint glow.

Gazing down at her skin curiously Cora flicked it with her other hand to see if it would change or go away, it didn't. Pulling her wings into her she saw that they too were glowing and giving off a weak yellow light, was there something wrong with her?

All at once Cora realized that this could be her second Talon, she was a human glow stick! In a way it kind of reminded her of when she went super mode on Earth, save that it wasn't painful, and it didn't feel as near as powerful as before. There was something about it this time that was different, like the light she had inside her was calmer, an energy all her own that she could control.

Concentrating on the light Cora tried to see if she could make it brighter and stronger, focusing on it for a few seconds she saw that it started to flicker, the orbs seemed to grow a little larger, and her wings looked like they were reverberating with new light.

Jumping to her feet Cora had the idea that she wanted to show Loki, it had only been two days since that had really talked to each other, or kissed, but it felt like it had been longer, she wanted to feel his lips on hers. Or perhaps she just wanted to show him that she could glow in the dark like a night light; would that earn her a kiss? She could possibly just steal a kiss from him.

Going through her door and sprinting down the hallway Cora ran to where she believed Loki's room to be, going past several guards they all looked at her oddly, none of them had ever seen someone glow like she was. It was Ara that assured Cora that she had found Loki's room, he was just standing outside the door, as was his job, but Cora couldn't help but wonder how boring a job like that could get, watching the same guy all day long, possibly losing him a few times throughout the day.

"Ara!" Cora shouted his name. His head turned towards her as soon she let his name slip past her lips, though after her caught sight of her luminous form he had to blink a few times to make sure it was her.

"Lady Cora," he greeted as the space around him got a little lighter. "Are you alright?" He asked concern washing over his face as he saw the light get a little brighter.

"Yes, I'm fine," Cora laughed sticking her tongue out playfully. "I think this is my second Talon, I might be a human glow stick," she said with a smile lacing its way across her face cheerfully. "But that would be lame," she murmured to herself calmly.

"It does not hurt you?" He asked gently.

"No, I feel fine," she said happily before the light started to fade away from her. Looking around her slightly, trying to focus on keeping it there, it quite quickly disappeared. "Awww," she whined disappointed. She had wanted to show Loki, and possibly Thor, but now she didn't have anything to show them.

"Is everything alright?" Ara asked looking at her sad face. Cora looked at him slightly irritated, she was happy that he was concerned for her, but all he ever did was ask questions about her wellbeing.

"I'm fine," she muttered. "Good night Ara," she said waving him off and walking back towards her room.

"Good night Lady Cora," he called after her. Cora disappeared around a corner dully; did this mean that she couldn't control her power enough to do anything with it? Probably, just like how she sometimes couldn't go through wall if she was injured.

Suddenly angry Cora turned around and walked through a bunch of rooms until she got to Loki's room to see him laying down on his bed, his back leaning against the headboard he looked over at her bored, looking away slowly with a sigh.

"Hey," Cora almost shouted before she remembered that Ara was right outside. Walking over to the edge of the bed Cora glared down at Loki with an almost funny looking frown on her face.

"What do you want little bird?" Loki seemed almost annoyed at her presence. It was all part of his plan of course, ignore her to the point where she was the one that went after him, what he didn't know was that Cora wasn't that type of person. At least not right away, first she would try to get you to go after her, not intentionally, but that was just the way that she reacted to people ignoring her.

"You're ignoring me, and," she paused trying to figure out what she was going to say next. "I hate you," she said childishly. This made Loki look over at her with an amused smirk, looking up at her with eyes that almost made her blush.

"Is that all?" He questioned looking at her with a face that said, 'you can leave now.'

Turning around with a frown on her face she smiled wondering if what she was going to say next would get a rise out of him.

"Tomorrow I'm going to Nash's room, he has a surprise for me," she murmured before walking through the wall and leaving Loki to his own thoughts. She chose to say room instead of house because it just sounded a little more secretive, a little naughtier, this was also one of the first responses that wafted through her mind, it sounded okay.

Looking after Cora Loki's smirk turned into a growl, was she really so audacious to believe that going to another man's house would bode well with him? When she came back tomorrow she was going to get it, the plan was off, perhaps that's what she had been aiming for, but knowing her probably not, it was probably the first thing that popped into her head as a remark.

"Just wait," he whispered under his breath threateningly. Perhaps if she took too long he could just go down there and get her himself.

The next morning Cora ignored Loki at all costs, she even ran into Ara and Thor before she took flight and went down to Nash's house, her glowing power had been turning on and off all night, which had been kind of annoying. Especially when she was trying to sleep, at first it had been exciting, but she really wanted to sleep, stupid human night light was what she was.

"Nash!" Cora called out into the house; it seemed to be rather dark compared to the last two days she had been helping out. "I think I'm getting my second Talon," she said walking through the door.

Hearing a sound behind her Cora turned to see Nash glaring at her darkly, there was something familiar in the way that he was looking at her; it was a look that had been in all the faces that he'd made at her. Just now she realized that it was something dark that seemed to be twisted to many times.

"What's wrong?" Cora asked taking a step back. He looked pretty creepy, there was a dark look in his eyes, one that Cora couldn't explain, something more menacing than she had ever seen before, like he was a killer.

"You know I wasn't sure of it when we first met," he said leaning against a table lazily.

Cora looked at him frightened, to which he smirked darkly at, and Cora shivered. Loki had smirked at her before, but never like this, there was something sinister hidden in his smile.

"But you really do remind me of my sister," he said with a smile breaking onto his face, a sickening smile. "You know what I did to my sister?" He questioned walking towards her slowly. Cora tried to get away from him, still unsure of what was going on, could this all be some sort of rotten joke?

"Didn't she die?" Cora questioned backing away from him to a corner. He walked up to her, looking down at her with a desperate look in his eye.

"Yeah she did," he smiled. "I killed her," he murmured to her sweetly before grabbing her shoulders and ramming her into the wall. She let out a small whimper before he smirked at her. "And I'm going to kill you," he stated throwing her onto the floor.

"But why? You loved your sister," Cora said backing away from him truly terrified.

"Oh I hated that little bitch," he sneered at her. "Everyone always loved her, everyone paid attention to her, everyone adored her, everyone but me," he shouted at her. "Even my parents loved her more than they ever liked me, and I was the older one, they compared me to her, and then she tried to comfort me, and I couldn't take it," he reached down at wretched Cora up by her hair.

With a cry of pain Cora reached out to grab him, to try and get away, anything, but he just threw her away from him, making sure to hit her head on the wall.

"I couldn't take her smile anymore, she was a faker, everything was fake, didn't anyone see that she was faking it! Didn't anyone know what she truly was," he shouted at her as if she was his sister. "She stole things, and twisted people's minds, everyone loved her," he stated bitterly. "You're just like her, a faker, I can't stand fakers," he growled.

"But I'm not a faker," Cora gasped out.

"Aren't you? Aren't you?" He yelled at her before dragging her towards the pool in his room. "I know you hate water," he smirked at her.

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**Time to go to sleep, I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out how to elongate this story and keep it interesting ans suspenseful. This seemed like a good way to do it, so please tell me what you think, because I'm a bit skeptical of how this will pan out to the readers.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Next chapter. This took me longer than it should have because my friend kept making me edit her story, which is something that takes a while, so if you're angry, go talk to her. Anyway you might be mad at me for the end of the chapter, I'm sorry ahead of time, but not really, yeah a little sorry.**

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With a gasp Cora was pulled from the water again, it was the fourth time, with a painful choke she sputtered as water came back up from her stomach; Nash laughed behind her and pulled her to her knees by her hair.

"Nothing left to say?" He mocked her with a crude face. With a glare Cora spat on his face, which he smirked at before throwing her into a wall and punching her in the face.

With a strangled cry Cora's head jerked to the side, Nash had been beating her up for at least an hour, taking his sweet time, perhaps it had been a few hours, she couldn't tell, everything felt so long. During the time that she was getting beaten she figured out a few things that had bothered her slightly.

The reason that Nash was even on Asgard in the first place was probably because he had killed his sister, so he'd left his own home and gone to a realm where no one knew what he had done, clever on his part, she had to give him that. He pretended to be her friend, to see if she reminded him of his sister, that realization was what hurt her the most, she'd finally found someone like her, and all he wanted to do was smash her face in for fun.

Looking down at her Nash sneered before rearing back for another punch, he was going to take his time killing her, the way she smiled and tried to be friends with everybody made him sick, he was sick of seeing that damned smile on her face for no reason.

Cora put her arms in front of her face in order to block most of the blow, only to see a blast of light flash for a brief moment.

For Cora it looked like someone had taken a picture with the flash on or something, but for Nash it was completely different. When he was mere seconds away from hitting her fist was deflected away from her, forcing him backwards with a flash of light that sent him into the wall opposite from him. Sinking to the ground he looked up to see a faint force field of light encircling Cora like a barrier, it glowed a little bit before it faded away.

"That was new," Nash cackled getting up shakily. "Was that your second Talon? It's very powerful, I'm jealous," he sneered moving towards her slowly. Cora looked up at him with a very frightened expression, had her Talon protected her from him?

Picking up a glass he threw it at her to see if the barrier was still up, it shattered against the wall next to her, which made him laugh manically.

"So it was only good for one time huh?" He mused grabbing her and throwing her into the water again. "I think it's finally time to say good bye," he sneered before pushing her into the water by her shoulders.

Cora choked on the water harshly, seeing black spots in her vision she wished for so many things, but the only one she truly wanted the most was to be with Loki, if she lived, maybe he would stop ignoring her. If she lived.

Letting a scream rip out of her lips she fought back with what little strength that she had left, ignoring all the pain she tried to tear at his face, spitting up water and swallowing a bunch of it.

Loki decided to let Ara come along with him as he went to pick up Cora, it couldn't hurt anything right? Besides he could ditch Ara with Nash, and then he would have Cora to himself, to punish her, or attack her with intimacy was a better way of saying it.

Nash had gotten a house a little ways away from where he usually spent his time in the palace, it wasn't far for Cora because she could just jump and be there in a few wing beats, but it was a little longer for him. It didn't help that Ara was suspicious of why they were going down there in the first place, he'd spoken to Thor about the matter, so it wasn't as if they went without telling anyone, but it had been an odd request.

So now as Loki walked furiously towards Nash's house, angry thoughts clouding his mind as he wandered over to the front door of Nash's house, raising his hand to knock on the door Loki heard a scream from inside. After that there was a thud and then silence.

Terror finding its way into Loki's throat he swallowed and started to rip the door off its hinges, finding that it was very strong, and well locked, he found Ara rearing back beside him before he moved forward and punched a hole into the door. That had been Cora's scream, and Ara was even more worried than Loki, finally he was doing something besides babysitting, he only wished that the girl was alright.

Tearing the door away from them Ara threw it aside and they both looked inside the house, darkness seemed to cloud over it like a blanket.

"Lady Cora?" Ara called out into the black.

"I don't think she's breathing anymore," they heard a voice from inside call to them. It was Nash's voice, but it sounded sickening and desperate, not like his usual calm and playful tone.

"What do you mean by that?" Ara called out. Loki looked into the dark enraged, what had happened here? It smelled of blood.

"Well, you see," Nash said letting his face appear in the corner of the room. "I killed her," he said with a simple smile. Loki rushed into the house after him, looking around with a glare when he disappeared into the shadows.

"You will wish you never touched her," Loki said with venom. "Your death will not be swift," he glared darkly.

"So it will be just like hers then?" Nash's voice mocked.

Loki reared around hearing a noise, seeing Ara enter and then disappear in shadow, something beside him shuffled and he caught someone in the jaw, with a sickening crack, it wasn't Ara, the guard would have enough sense to block it at least.

With frustration and desperate worry Loki looked for any sign that he might find of Cora, anything, she had to be alive still. Glancing around again he could now see a faint light coming from a little ways off. For a second there was a flash of light, and the whole room was alight again.

Nash was in the middle of the room looking truly baffled and a little angry; he glared first at Loki then at Ara, before she looked over towards where Cora was with a laugh.

"I guess she's not dead yet," he mused walking over to her sluggishly. Loki reacted the same time that Ara did, but Loki had magic on his side, they did go for different targets though. Ara swung the leg of a broken table towards Nash, while Loki appeared next to Cora, pulling her from the water and materializing outside of the house.

"Little bird?" He asked putting her down gently.

She was deathly pale, with cuts and bruises all over her face and arms, there was a faint glow about her body, but otherwise she seemed as lifeless as a log floating in the ocean. Loki looked over her frantic, he'd never been like this before, and would later think about his actions, but for now all he cared about was seeing Cora breathe, he just wanted her to live.

Pushing on her chest roughly he tried to mimic what he'd only seen once before, pushing air into her lungs he tried to revive her. Pushing on her chest again Loki saw that it wasn't doing any good, she still wasn't breathing, it even looked like she was getting worse.

"Cora! Breathe Damn it!" He shouted pushing her chest again.

With a cough Cora spit out some water, making Loki back up slightly and look kindly. After a fit of coughing Cora looked up at Loki with a hint of hope in her eyes.

"Loki?" She asked weakly.

"I'm here," whispered moving his head close to hers. She didn't say anything else, simply looked at him with a faint smile creeping onto her face, a smile that made him want to scream at her. Why was she smiling right now? Why?

"Are you still going to ignore me?" She whispered the question to him sickly, trying to keep her eyes open as long as she could, just so she could see him, it was what she wanted before she died, if she died.

"No, stay with me," he said shaking her gently to keep her from closing her eyes. "Cora," he shouted seeing that she was fading out. Hearing a crash from inside the house Loki looked up to see Nash flying away slowly, a bloody stump where his arm used to be, bastard got what he deserved, save Loki wouldn't have let him get away. He would have killed him.

Ara stumbled out of the door with a slash on his face; he looked down shortly to see that Cora was breathing, before looking at Loki with a threatening expression.

"Take her back to the palace," he said before slumping towards the ground.

Loki picked her up quickly, holding her against his chest firmly; she was not going to die.

A quick pace and a determined man made it possible to get Cora to the palace in minutes, where he gave her over to the healers who started to work on her immediately.

"Brother!" Loki shouted when he saw Thor running down the hall.

"What has happened?" He questioned with rage in his eyes.

"Send a healer down to Nash's house, Ara is injured," he stated firmly before going after Cora.

"Who's Ara?" Thor questioned from afar.

"Just do it," Loki shouted with venom in his voice. He didn't actually care about his guard it was just payback for helping Cora, he only knew his name because of the girl anyway, and Cora had already lost one friend today. If she lost another one she would be crushed.

It took the healers an hour to do everything that they had to do with her, telling Loki that she would live and that he should let her get some sleep.

It had been two days now, and she hadn't woken up, Loki was getting agitated and impatient.

"Little bird if you don't wake up right now I'm going to," he paused trying to think of something he could do. "Ignore you," he muttered giving up, there was nothing he could think of doing. Looking away from her a voice startled him slightly.

"But you said you wouldn't anymore," she murmured moving her hand towards him weakly. Her voice was barely a whisper, but for Loki she couldn't have been louder, he'd never cared about anyone life he cared about her. He'd never felt this way for anyone but her, seeing her lying there for two days without moving was killing him, and only now did he realize it, for it was bearing down on him like a ton of bricks.

Turning to look at her sharply Loki's eyes softened when he saw that she was looking at him with a soft smile.

"What happened to Nash?" She asked faintly. Hearing that made Loki angry for some reason, did she really care about the man that had tried to kill her? Clenching her hand angrily Loki glared at her.

"You care about that man that tried to kill you?" He seethed shaking her hand in her face. Cora's face clenched in shocked pain.

"Did you get him for me?" She asked clenching her teeth. Loki relaxed and let her go to see that she had a few tears in her eyes, which he didn't feel very bad for, since he didn't want to.

"Ara got him for you," he said touching her face gently.

"Oh," she murmured leaning against his hand. "Come closer," she mumbled to him softly. He moved so that his face was inches away from hers.

Moving up slowly Cora kissed him on the lips sweetly, smiling on her way back down to the bed, trying to get back into a comfortable position.

"Love you," she whispered before closing her eyes and dozing off. It hadn't been her intent to fall asleep right away, she'd intended to kiss him, say her bit, and then get his answer, like she hoped that he would give. Instead she fell asleep right away, silently cursing herself in her dream for being so tired after being asleep for so long.

Unsure of how to respond Loki got up and wandered out of her room slowly, at first he hadn't cared if Cora liked him back or not, he just saw her as an object to posses, something that was a challenge to acquire. Now he was questioning himself, he obviously cared for the girl, love was definitely an option, but what is the right option.

When he'd seen her lifeless and pale his heart seemed to have stopped for a second, as if he could scream into the nothingness and silence that he was getting from her, as if the grief had overwhelmed him.

Leaning against the wall Loki ran his hand through his hair, glancing around himself to see that there was no one following him, he could really do whatever he wanted, but for a strange reason he wanted nothing to do with anything that would get him in trouble. All he wanted to do was hold Cora in his arms, and whisper things into her ears, it was a thought that made him turn around and walk back towards Cora's room.

Looking over Cora he marveled at how her wings seemed unharmed, and had completely disappeared behind her back; she really was a strange creature.

Crawling onto her bed he lifted her up gently and pulled her body onto his, leaning against the pillows and holding her there with him, the feeling of her even breathing against him made him calm, for a reason he did not know.

Hearing footsteps approaching Loki decided that he didn't care who saw him with her, he was done with hiding, and perhaps the sight of the two of them together would prove to everyone that he wasn't going to kill anyone.

Who would have thought that Fandral would walk into the room, Loki's first guess was Thor, but this was much better, for the look on the man's face was surely something that one would want to see.

Fandral didn't know what to say at all, Loki was there, holding a sleeping Cora, and glaring at him like a lioness might glare at someone trying to attack her cub.

"Get out," Loki growled softly. "She's mine," he declared in a soft voice so as to not wake up his sleeping girl.

Backing up Fandral walked away from the room awkwardly, considering whether or not he should tell Thor what was happening with their favorite Averian.

The next person in the room was Thor; Loki was still holding Cora, thinking about a lot of things that he'd never really thought about her, things he'd never needed to think about before.

"Brother," Thor said nodding gruffly at what he saw. Loki nodded back at him, making no move to stop anything that he was currently doing. "I see that you are busy, and I trust you with Cora," he said with a smile. He approved and was proud that Loki had finally found something, or someone, that he truly cared about. When Loki had run into the palace with Cora in his arms Thor knew that something was different he could trust Loki again, at least with Cora anyway.

"Say what you must," Loki said bitterly.

"I'll have to assign a new guard to you," he explained with a sad expression.

"Why?" Loki questioned curiously.

"Because your last one died, Ara was it?" He said with a sort of indifferent tone. Loki was slightly angry, did he not care that one of his servants had died? Goodness he was thinking like Cora now wasn't he?

"Don't tell Cora," Loki said with a threatening glare.

"She cared for him?" He questioned looking down at their unconscious friend.

"They were friends," he explained looking down at her calmly. If she found out that Ara was dead, how would she take it? Thor nodded and made a gruff sort of smile before walking away.

Thor walked away from the room with a proud sort of feeling warming his heart; it had been a while since he had a normal conversation with his brother, Cora was the center of it, that he knew for sure. He owed her for that, though he also owed her for the fact that Nash was bad, and he'd been the one who was excited about finding her one of her own kind. He would apologize to her when she woke and Loki was gone.

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**So, please review, like always. Button, down there, actually I don't think its a button anymore, its a box I think. So review box, yeah. Please and thank you.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Nineteen, this story has come so far. When I started this story there were only about four songs on my playlist, now there's about sixty, oh, how time flies. Anyway, here's the new chapter, hope you enjoy it!**

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It took a couple days for Cora to get back to being able to move without being super sore, it even took her a while to stop falling asleep whenever she did about ten minutes of exercise, it was frustrating on her part. There was also a part of her that wanted to hide herself away, was she so unlikable that Nash had wanted to kill her?

For many years she had longed for someone like her, someone from her home planet that she could fly with, someone that understood everything that she had a problem with, things that only another Averian could understand. It wasn't her fault, it was obvious that Nash was a bit of a psycho, everyone could see that after Cora had told them what he'd said to her.

As he was taking his time killing her he told her everything.

When he'd first met her it was just to get to know another Averian, he actually kind of hoped that she would be different, maybe then they could settle down with each other, or something like that, yes, he knew it was wishful thinking. After the first day he was a little wary of her because she really did remind him of his sister, so much so that he almost regretted what he had done to his sister. Then he went through all the reasons why he killed his sister, and came to the conclusion that Cora was not his sister, so it didn't matter.

At first he thought he was going crazy, every time he saw Cora he saw his sister, smirking at him, reminding him that no matter what he did no one would ever care about him, about how worthless he really was. When Cora laughed it sounded like her laugh, his sister had somehow gotten back into his mind and was clouding his vision.

Nash had lied to Cora about a few things, his sister's first Talon had been controlling minds, it was a very frightful Talon, and his sister had been relentless with it, tainting his mind with pictures and pushing commands into his brain. To everyone else she was a perfect girl with a powerful Talon, she was to be respected, honored, but they didn't know that she was polluting their minds and making them believe what wasn't true.

He couldn't take it anymore, everyday she was there, faking it, making everyone bend to do what she wanted, in his mind he had created a sister that made him do things that twisted his mind, in his mind she was more of a demon, something that needed to be killed. In reality she had a Talon that she couldn't control, and sometimes when she was asleep it went ballistic and attacked those close to her, and who was closer to her than her brother.

As he threw Cora into the wall he had told her of how when he killed his sister she had been smiling at him, smiling! Could he not have any triumph against the demon that was his sister, would she still be faking up until he killed her? The answer was yes, his sister knew of what her power had done to him, and she was sorry that it ever harmed him, so when he took her life she smiled at him.

'_I understand, and I'm sorry,'_ is what she had said to him as he killed her.

Nahs's twisted mind and tainted thoughts made it out to be a final sign of mockery before she died, her sympathy and pity before she died made him go mad, so he left the planet and moved to a different realm. Hoping that his past wouldn't follow him there, but it did, and all he saw when he looked at Cora was his sister, and how she mocked him even in her death.

Cora felt bad for him, and she tried to tell him that his sister was sorry, that she didn't mean any of it, but he didn't listen and he told her that she was just like his sister, a faker. All the while that they were hanging out she pushed past thoughts into his head, smiling, faking, lying, everyone was false. He didn't know that it was his own fault for feeling the way he did, his mind couldn't let go of the words that his sister had said to him before she died, they would forever be there.

When Cora had told that to Loki and Thor they looked sad for her, and then she said that she felt bad for Nash, even though he had tried to kill her. Loki had gotten angry at her, yelling at her about caring for a man that had almost killed her, telling her she was stupid, and storming off bitterly.

So Cora watched him go sadly, knowing that it was odd to care for someone who had in fact tried to kill her, but mostly sad because he had yet to say something to her. Cora took it as a sign that he didn't like her the way she liked him, and immediately retreated back into herself, hiding her sadness behind all the fake smiles that she had gotten so good at.

As much as they tried to keep it a secret Cora found out about Ara's death, if she hadn't been sad enough already that sure did the trick, she lost two friends in one day, it was as if all the life had been sucked out of her. She was even angry at Loki and Thor for keeping it from her, did she not deserve to know that her friend had died?

After Loki had left Thor apologized for introducing her to Nash, but she shrugged him off, telling him that she had been happy, even if it had only been for a little while, and that all she wanted was to be left alone.

That was two days ago, every time she woke Cora couldn't help but let her mind wonder to more depressing topics, and today after she walked around her room a few times she finally settled to a chair beside one of the windows in her room.

Even the servants were beginning to wonder where happy Cora had gone to, when they walked into her room all she did was stare out the window, sometimes at night when they walked by they could hear her crying. Thor tried to cheer her up, he got more candy, but it didn't help, you know something is terribly wrong when even candy doesn't cheer Cora up. Loki was doing nothing to comfort her, Thor wondered if he had been wrong about his brother, perhaps it was time to send Cora back to Earth, she was alive, and healthy.

Everyone would be sad to see her go, but at least she'd be happy again, right?

Fandral tried to come into her room but she shooed him away, which was a big hint that something was not right with the small Averian.

"Loki," Fandral went over to him as he walked down the hallway.

Loki had been in deep thought for the past days, he would have to answer Cora if he saw her, she'd told him that she loved him, but what was he to say to that? He was still angry with her for caring for the Nash fellow, she said that she pitied him, but the fact that she had any thoughts for him made Loki tremble with hatred. If Nash were dead and not just missing he could put her thoughts to rest, telling her there was nothing she could do now that he was gone, but he knew that Cora wanted to try to help him.

If there was something she could do for someone it was something that she made sure that she did, it was just the way she was.

"What do you want?" He sneered bitterly.

"Why are you avoiding Cora?" He asked with a glare.

"You dare glare at me," he retorted curtly. Where did he get off thinking he could do anything to change Loki's mind, he would do what he wanted with his women.

"She loves you; can't you at least go comfort her when she needs it?" He shouted at him. Fandral cared for the girl, that was evident in the way he spoke of her, he knew that Cora liked Loki, he'd been friend zoned from the very beginning, that didn't mean he was going to give her away. Seeing her alone, not smiling, not annoying everyone, seeing her sad, it was killing him, even Thor who always seemed to be an upbeat mood was beginning to miss his winged friend.

"Don't talk to me about her," Loki growled feeling heat in his face and anger in his words.

"You're a coward, leaving her to cry alone," Fandral bit out. Loki turned to him with a snarl, why did he think he had any say in how he treated Cora, did he think that Loki liked seeing Cora the way she was, did he think that he was ignoring her for fun?

"You shouldn't meddle in things you don't understand," he said finally. Fandral's frown twitched slightly in hatred and loathing.

"I do understand," he said in a choked voice before stalking away.

Looking after the man Loki glared at his new guard, Cora had tried to talk to the new man, but he had refused to even tell her his name, he simply told her that it was unimportant and that she should worry only about herself.

"Brother," Loki turned to see Thor running towards him.

Loki turned around to meet him, no smile, no nod of acknowledgement, he didn't care about what his brother wanted, he didn't care what he had to say. The only thing in his mind at the moment was Cora sitting in her room crying, looking out the window, being alone.

"Do you truly care about Cora?" He asked with a glare when Loki didn't respond to him.

"Why do you care?" He seethed. Why was everyone pushing him to go see her?

"Because she so sad," Thor said in a voice that fell slightly. He was about to say more when Loki interrupted him angrily.

"Don't tell me what I already know brother!" He shouted at him punching a hole in the wall next to him. "You think I don't know that she's sad, everyone's told me," he yelled at him. Thor seemed a bit taken aback by his outburst; it reminded him that Loki had a lot of anger inside of him.

"Are you not going to her?" Thor questioned quizzically.

"That is none of your concern," he snarled turning away from him.

"I'll say this then," Thor stated sternly. "If, by the end of the week, she is still in her room, if she is still sad," he said shortly. "I will send her back to Earth," he threatened, wanting to see how Loki would react.

"Why would you do that?" Loki questioned turning around and walking up to him. He had just gotten her back from being injured, he'd just realized his feelings for her, not that he wanted to vocalize them, but he couldn't lose her.

"She's not happy," Thor said with sadness in her eyes. "At least on Earth, she has a family, she has friends," he stated with indecision in his eyes.

"I will not allow you to send her back," Loki glared at him.

"It is not up to you," he stated before walking away from him. He wanted to harm the man, he really did, but nothing could be done to Thor, not with the new guard there.

Thor talking to him had been the final push, Loki walking quickly over to Cora's room, pretty much pounding on the door, it almost sounded as if it would break beneath the force of his fist. When there was no reply to his knock he opened the door himself, glancing around the room until he saw Cora by the window again.

"Little bird," he greeted leaning against a wall.

"Hi," she muttered not looking away from the glass. He waited for a few seconds, getting angrier and angrier by the second, he finally snapped at her.

"Damn it Cora, look at me," he shouted at her. She turned to him slowly, it wasn't as if she was trying to make him angry or anything, she was just trying not to cry, Loki had to bring his dreaded new guard with him when he came into the room.

"What?" She mumbled looking at him. There was something about her that just seemed so sad, he wanted to just hug her, he wanted to see her smile again, instead it looked as if she was going to cry, he hadn't seen her cry before. If she were to cry, would Loki know what to do with her?

"Stop being sad," he said sitting down on her bed awkwardly. What was he supposed to say? He'd never had to deal with anything like this before, how was he supposed to help her get happier if he had no idea how to?

"Is that really all you have to say?" She asked her voice trembling. He looked up at her to see that her eyebrows were knit together and her eyes had tears threatening to fall, she looked so heartbroken it almost broke him.

"Well," he started to say before she cut him off.

"You're really bad at this," she murmured a tear running down her cheek. "Dang it," she whispered wiping her eyes quickly. She'd been crying for a while now, whenever she thought of Ara, or of Loki she started to get sad, then she thought of Loki and Ara more and she started to cry, it was an unending cycle.

"Uhm," Loki tried to find some words to comfort her. "I like you," he said looking at her. He hoped that maybe he wouldn't have to say that he loved her; he hoped that this would be enough.

"I know," she muttered looking back towards the window.

She didn't want him in here if all he was going to do was sit there and spit empty words at her; it wasn't something that she needed, if she didn't love him, why was he here? He wasn't going to say sorry, he wasn't doing anything, could she not just be left alone until she was ready to pretend to be happy?

In a second she was on her bed, looking up at Loki who had her pinned to the soft blanket beneath her.

"Is it not enough to know that I will be here for you always?" He questioned her with a desperate look. Leaning in before she could speak he kissed her deeply, it was definitely one of the longest kisses they had ever shared.

Pulling away from her he looked down to see that she was crying, he didn't know why, shouldn't she be happy that he had kissed her?

"Please just leave me alone," she cried turning her head away from him.

You might be thinking, why the heck would you cry after he kissed you? You should be happy! Stupid Cora. The thing you need to understand is that she's just lost two of her friends in a place where she only has about four friends in the first place. Imagine if you just lost your best friend, and your boyfriend or you parents come in and say I like you, would that really solve anything?

No, it wouldn't.

With a growl he ripped himself away from her and stomped out of her room and slammed the door, like a child might when they were to be put in time out.

Cora stayed on her bed for a few more minutes, just lying there void of any emotion that she might feel, that was something that she'd never done before, if she wasn't so sad she probably would've been jumping all over the room laughing. She would at least feel a little triumphant for what she had done. Instead she let her tears fall freely down her face, the reason Ara died, was because of her.

Bare feet pounded the floor behind where Thor was walking, he thought nothing of it, lots of people ran places in the palace, the thing that caught him off guard was when someone hugged him from behind and sobbed into his cape. Only one person's name came to his mind when he thought of who it might be.

"Cora?" He muttered softly reaching back to pat her head.

She'd been in her room, alone again when it was finally too much for her, when she was really sad on Earth there had always been someone she could go to, Tony, Hawkeye, even Fury sometimes, but who did she have here?

"It's my fault," she whimpered. "Ara died because of me, because I was too weak," she cried falling to her knees.

Thor turned around to face her gently, crouching down next to her he looked her in the eyes before he hugged her tightly.

"No, it's not your fault, Ara chose to do it because you were his friend," Thor said in a soft voice.

"Then it is my fault," She said in a louder voice. It probably wasn't the best thing to say to a girl who was crying, but Thor didn't know how to deal with anything like this, he was just like his brother in that regard.

"No," Thor said trying to think of what to say desperately. Pulling her away from him he looked at her angrily. "Ara liked you best when you were smiling; everyone loves you when you smile," he explained grabbing onto her shoulder gently. "Ara wouldn't want you to feel sad, you have to be happy for him, because he was happy that he had you," he said pushing her hair away from her eyes.

Cora looked at him in thought, she hadn't thought of it like that, in her mind she was some evil doer that made everyone she loved get hurt or die, or ignore her for that matter.

"You think so?" She asked standing up and looking at him. Thor stood up as well, patting her head lovingly.

"Yeah," Thor nodded with a smile creeping across his face.

"Okay," she muttered looking down. "I'm still sad, but I feel better now, thank you," she said leaning up on her tip toes and pecking him on the cheek as a thank you.

"Where are you going?" He asked as she walked away slowly.

"To the garden, there's a happy memory there," she explained thinking back to when she and Loki ran around the maze.

"Can you give me a smile?" He asked her with a pleading face.

She didn't really want to, Ara was still dead, Nash had tried to kill her; there was nothing to smile about, why should she smile? She would smile because Thor was her friend, and he had done his best to comfort her when no one else wanted to, not even Loki had comforted her, he even gave up on her, and she'd told him that she loved him.

So she turned around and gave him a smile, a fake smile obviously, and Thor could tell, but a smile nonetheless, she then ran to the garden, where she could be alone, save for perhaps the butt flowers.

When she got to the garden however, there was someone waiting for her there.

"What do you want Loki?" She asked with a bland face.

"I need to tell you something," he said with a stern commanding voice.

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**Yes, review please, I still crave them like dogs crave bacon, or pregnant women crave food. I think this story is about over, what do you think?**


	20. Chapter 20

**Not very many people read the top part of these, so I'll just say enjoy the chapter.**

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"You already told me," Cora said in a sad shout. You can't blame her for feeling the way she was, which was frustrated and desperate, she'd told him that she loved him a few days ago, then he'd ignored her, and all her had to say for himself was, I like you. Any girl would be angry with an answer like that.

"No I didn't," he muttered trying to recall if he had told her yet, because he was sure he hadn't.

"You did," she said angrily. "You told me you liked me, and that's as far as your going isn't it?" She questioned with an angry look on her face.

Loki looked at Cora a little bit baffled, he'd never seen her like this before, the way her cheeks reddened and her eyes got serious made him a little excited for some reason. It would probably not be the best thing to say to her at the moment but Loki didn't care; he just wanted to hold his girl, though he didn't want her to be angry at him.

"You're cute when you're angry," he murmured getting closer to her. Instead of seeing the face that he wanted to see Cora's eyebrows knit together in anger and a sort of defeated expression.

"Is that all you have to say to me?" She asked with a trembling voice.

Her plan had backfired, she'd decided that when she saw Loki she would be angry, and relentless in the way that she treated him, but why did she believe that she of all people could do that? When she saw him, and he said he needed to tell her something she wanted to smile, and laugh with him, just like the last time that they were in the garden. Though as she stood there and thought about it quickly, thoughts came to mind, Ara came to mind, and she was more sad than angry now, Ara was gone, and that was something she would never be likely to get over.

"No, but," Loki started to say before she cut him off.

"Just save it," she cried turning away from him. "Let me wallow in my sorrow," she whispered softly before running off into the garden. "Leave me alone," she said in a dull whisper that she hoped he couldn't hear.

It had never been her intention to make a scene or anything, this was the drama that people on television were always talking about, but it was so hard to look at Loki and not know if he returned her feelings or not.

When you're in a relationship you'd want the other person to hold you, and whisper sweet things into your ear that make you smile, you'd want them to make you breakfast in bed when you're sick, or hold you close and say I love you. Cora had never been in a relationship like this before, she didn't know what she was going to get from Loki, he was a bit demanding, and seemingly selfish, but he did seem to care for her.

You could say that all Cora wanted to hear from him was, _'I love you too,'_ and he had even failed to say that yet. You can imagine her agony, in waiting for that reply.

In a second Cora was wrapped in Loki's arms, he dragged her into his lap as he sat on the ground, locking his arms around her hips he held her back to his chest and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Stop running away," he said in a venomous voice that made her shiver. It only made Cora struggle in his grasp; she wasn't going to give in to him anymore. "Stop it," he whispered darkly.

"Why?" She questioned letting a tear fall down her face. Loki turned her around to face him to have his face soften upon seeing the state she was in. "You don't care about me, you lied to me, and ignored me, and I," she paused looking at the ground. She hadn't wanted to blow up in front of him, but a generally happy person is only happy for so long before they crack.

With a growl Loki pulled her face up to look at him.

"How dare you say I do not care for you," he bit out disgustedly. Putting his hand on her cheek gently he gave her a desperate smile. "I lied to you about Ara, for that I am sorry," he pulled her into a hug, one that she did not hug back. She felt like a rag doll he could throw about.

"But why did you?" She questioned into his chest. He pulled her away from himself and grasped her shoulders roughly, might have even left bruises.

"I didn't want to see you cry," he shouted at her. "I didn't want to see you sad," he muttered, his voice fading off. When he said this Cora's expression changed, from one that had sadness and pain written all over it to one of hope and love. She still didn't think it was a very good reason, but there was a warm feeling that started to ignite in her chest.

She didn't know what to say after that, there were no words to express anything anymore.

Leaning forward Cora crashed her lips onto his, collapsing into his chest and gasping slightly as he kissed her back, sticking his tongue in her mouth and rubbing his hands down her back, man their relationship was weird.

Fight. Then kiss. Then get angry and sad. Then kiss.

Leaning away from him slowly Cora hugged him tightly.

"I still think you shouldn't have lied to me, but thank you," she whispered gently. Loki held her tightly, falling backwards onto his back and taking her with him so that she was on top of him, peering down into his wanting eyes.

Loki was a bit angry still, what was it with women and being so damn confusing? What in the world did they think about? At first he though Cora would be easy to please, easy to comfort, easy everything, and he had been terribly wrong.

What was it that she had said to him? Leave me alone, that had been the line that set him off, she'd said it in a soft voice so he wasn't sure if she had said it at all at first, then again, she was running off to be alone, so it probably had been her.

Gazing up into her eyes Loki put his hands on the back of her head lovingly before leading her down onto his lips, it was there that many kisses were shared, tongues met, and breath was stolen. Breaking apart for air Loki spoke to her in a breathless tone.

"I love you, little bird," he whispered into her ear. Feeling slightly shocked Cora leaned back and looked at him to see that he had a small smile on his face, he'd just told her, and he did love her. "That is why I could not bear to see you sad," he explained moving a few strands of hair out of her eyes.

"I love you too," Cora murmured before going back down to kiss him. Man she had grown up, not months before she had never been in a relationship, never kissed a man, never wanted to be with someone like this. Then there's now, here she is, kissing the man she loves, who also loves her back, with a feeling of warmth in her that she had never felt before.

Maybe it was the fact that she now knew that she wasn't really alone, if she was sad, someone would hold her, if she ran away someone would chase after her, if she died someone would mourn her death. To say the least she felt very much at ease with her life for the first time in a long time, the first time being when she became friends with Tony, because the man didn't care that she was different, and that had been a very welcome thing for her.

Now as she kissed Loki this feeling was completely different than it had been before. Before the feeling was welcome, but empty, there was something about being just friends that was fun, but it lacked something that Cora couldn't describe. She could feel it now, the feeling of being complete, and the feeling of being loved.

As they pulled away from each other Loki kissed her neck and bit at her skin teasingly, pulling her up with him they stood and began to make their way out of the garden and into the palace, there was something that Loki wanted to do to show everyone that Cora was his.

Picking her up he carried her against his chest, like a husband would carry his wife after being wed, he didn't care who saw them together, who gasped because they didn't approve of them as a pair, he didn't even care when he walked past his mother. The women had met Cora and thought her a warm young lady, a lady that would make any man happy, and here was Loki, her son, holding said women like a lover.

It was odd when Loki had first left, to see that Loki had become evil, to not have him in the palace anymore, to know that he would never feel at home as his did as a child. Seeing him return had been relieving, for he had not died like she feared he might, even though he was not her child she cared for him like only a mother could. Seeing him back in the palace was great, but he wasn't himself anymore, he'd always been a trickster, making preposterous gambles and predictions, but somehow he was very different.

Then there was Cora, she saw the way the girl looked at him, a lost love is what she had first thought, but now as she watched them walk away, as a mother, she could only be happy that Loki had found someone who loved him, and he loved back.

"Shoot that was your mom," Cora muttered shrinking in his arms. Loki chuckled lightly, smirking down at her with what could only be amusement. "Everyone will see us if we walk down the hallway like this," she whispered up to him.

"I know," he murmured kissing her forehead gently.

With a small sort of pout Cora felt a little left out, Loki never told her anything of his mischief, she didn't much care for it, eventually she could try and get him to tell her, but for now she guessed it was a sort of riddle that would be fun to mess with.

Finally they walked into the common room that just about everyone in the palace seemed to walk through in the span of a normal day, the perfect place for what he was planning, the perfect place to kiss Cora and hold her close.

"Why are we here?" She questioned him. She had been having a bit of fun listening to everyone's reaction at seeing them together, watching as their faces contorted into confusion and disapproval.

"I want to show you off," he whispered biting her neck lovingly.

Sitting down in one of the chairs that seemed to be placed randomly about the room Loki held Cora like, well it looked like a father holding his child, a little creepy in the kind of situation, but a daring couple might call it sexy.

For a few minutes Loki looked around at people's faces as they walked by, making sure that everyone saw that they were together, he was even having a bit off fun when his father walked by with a proud step in his gait.

"Loki," he said in a stern voice that made Cora shrink back into him.

"Father," he replied with strings of bitterness in his voice. The great man looked at the both of them to see that Cora was blushing and looking down, maybe as a sort of bow, but mostly because she was very embarrassed.

"If you do anything to harm her, I will make sure you never see her again," he stated boldly. Loki glared up at his father with hatred, why would he do anything to harm her?

"I would never," he spat out. His father smiled and lifted Cora's chin up to look at him.

"Good, because she's special," he said before walking away. Cora looked after him with wonder in her eyes, she wasn't anything special as far as she knew, just a small lost Averian in a realm with no friends, my that was a depressing thought.

"Your father scares me," Cora whispered up to Loki.

"He's just a man that has outgrown his power," Loki sneered looking after him. "He does not care what I do," he muttered. Of course there was still some tension between Loki and his father, the man never told him that he was adopted, there was still part of him that felt betrayed from that, and the fact that it seemed Thor was always his favorite.

"But he does care for you," she said looking up at him. There was a bit of edge in his face, as if he knew what might come if he continued the conversation.

"Perhaps," he said curtly, ending the conversation before it progressed.

"I care for you," she said to him.

"That is something I already knew," he joked looking down at her with a smirk. She gave him a sort of bored expression, and turned away from him with a pout, she had been expecting a different sort of response. With a laugh Loki pulled her up to kiss him, a sweet teasing sort of kiss that left Cora in a small state of want, which was odd for her, she never felt the need for kissing someone more.

Crawling out of his grasp Cora stood in front of him with a playful smile on her face.

"What is it little bird?" He questioned finding a smirk etch its way through his lips.

"Catch me," she giggled before sprinting off towards where their rooms were. This made Loki laugh, he could give her a little bit of head start and she would still not make it far enough away from him, course there was the small bit about her power to go through walls, and that might be a little tricky.

There was one thing he knew for sure though, if she was running away from him, he would catch her, if she was in trouble he would save her, and if she was in need of him, he would be there for her.

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**So I want to ask if you think this is a good ending, I have a couple more ideas that might last a few more chapters if you want to continue to read about Cora and Loki.**

**Otherwise I have another question, for my next story should it be:  
**

**-Another Avengers story, where Bruce Banner and Captain America like the same girl  
**

**-Young Loki, where it shows how he got mischievous and conniving**

**-A Batman story, Where Joker seems to be fascinated with a girl who seems detached from the world  
**

**So tell me, should I continue this story further? And which other story should I start writing?  
**


	21. Chapter 21

**So I guess I will continue this story, I have a few more idea that can last for a little while longer. There is also an ending that I think most of you will like. Enjoy the chapter.**

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It was a quiet morning, the palace hallways seemed to be vacant of anybody, save for a few guards standing here and there along the edges. Light shone through the windows, illuminating the building in just the right way, allowing just enough light to make it look like it was day time inside the palace walls.

A sudden shout echoed throughout the hallway, bouncing off the walls like a bouncy ball thrown at an alarming speed. This shout was very soon followed by loud footsteps. If one were to follow the noise to the source they would find Cora, they would also find that Cora was chasing a dog like creature that had a bag of candy in its mouth.

"Bobby Boy you better give me that candy back or I'm going to throw you out the window," Cora shouted at the creature.

So you're probably wondering who Bobby Boy is, you are, aren't you? Well Thor saw that Cora wasn't just ready to go back to Earth yet, seeing as Loki and she had just realized their feelings for each other and he wanted it to blossom a little more. So he decided that he would get her a friend to play with while she was in the castle and Loki was not around, even though he was pretty much around her all the time. This friend was a Grodth, a creature with four legs, a trunk, and weird bunny looking ears. About the size of a small dog Cora had fallen in love with it almost instantly, naming it Bobby Boy, and calling it awesome.

The only problem it seemed to cause was that now Cora seemed to have more fun with Bobby Boy than she was with Loki. Of course this was his opinion, Cora would never have as much fun with Bobby Boy as she did with Loki, mainly because Cora loved Loki more than she loved Bobby Boy. Also because Bobby Boy seemed to like stealing her candy, and that would just not do, you know how Cora is with candy.

It was a quiet morning until Cora woke up, and now she was chasing her dreaded dog creature down the hallway and shouting at it angrily. Loki was walking behind them with a beyond irritated look on his face. Oh how he wanted to kill that pesky little Grodth, he wanted to be rid of it and then he could comfort Cora and it would be just them again, and he could have her for himself.

So he had a plan that would successfully get rid of the little pest, at least for one day anyway. If Bobby Boy was gone forever Cora would be a little more than sad for a little while, and even though Loki would be all over her. It would be the wrong way to do it.

With a growl Cora opened her wings and flew at Bobby Boy at an alarmingly fast flight speed, at the speed she was going at she was able to grab him. They landed in a heap on the floor skidding and giving Cora some type of granite burn that turned her arm red, igniting it with a fiery pain.

"Ow," Cora cried holding Bobby Boy in her arms tightly. She didn't move, just laid there on the ground, wallowing in her pathetically gotten pain, almost wishing to throw the darned creature across the room in frustration.

Behind them Loki sighed, walking at his ever increasing pace. See it was Loki that gave Bobby Boy Cora's candy in the first place, if the thing ate it all then perhaps it would get sick and have to take a day off from being Cora's friend.

"How's your candy?" Loki questioned with an evil smirk on his face. Cora looked to see if the thing still had the bag of candy in its mouth, but there was nothing there, but Bobby Boy was chewing on something.

"He ate it," she whimpered sadly.

Loki wanted to laugh and smirk in triumph, but that would only make Cora angry at him, and curious as to why he was so happy in the first place, and then she would figure out that he made her candy disappear.

"Oh, how unfortunate," Loki murmured bending down to pick her up. It was a childish hold, like one might pick up an angry child, except that this child was not angry, this child was depressed.

Footsteps from farther down the hallway caught Loki's attention; Cora was still focused on losing her candy so nothing bothered her. Thor smiled at them happily, stooping down to pet the thing on the ground that seemed to be passed out.

"That thing looks funny," Thor laughed. Looking up to see that Cora was looking at the creature with a very sad expression on her face Thor looked at Loki questioningly.

"Bobby ate my Candy," she complained.

"Oh," Thor said with a disheartened expression. "Well, we're going to Earth tomorrow!" He said cheerfully trying to lighten the mood.

Immediately Cora brightened greatly, making Loki sigh angrily, for now his plan was completely and totally null, but perhaps not entirely.

"I'm going to go get ready," Cora shouted loudly. Wriggling out of Loki's grip she picked up her passed out dog thing and rushed back down the hall towards her room, leaving a grumpy Loki and smiling Thor behind her. Loki glared back at Thor with a menacing look before stalking off after Cora, grumbling about things that Thor couldn't make out, but didn't care to. So he walked the other direction with a grin on his face.

When Loki got the Cora's room he heard no activity from inside, which was strange seeing as how Cora was probably the most active person, or creature, he had ever come across. Looking curiously into the room Loki caught sight of Cora standing at her dresser, seemingly frozen as she had not moved even as he entered the room.

"Cora?" Loki whispered her name gently. She turned to him slowly, holding a sucker she looked at him with a sort of broken expression on her face. "What's wrong?" He asked softly.

"I gave this to Ara the day before he died, it was my last sucker," she murmured sadly. Instead of saying something else Loki walked over and hugged her from behind. Even though it seemed as though Cora had gotten over Ara's death there were random things that made her stop and think of him randomly. One time it had been a flower that Cora said reminded her of Ara's eyes, they'd been very pretty was all that Cora muttered as she had continued to walk down the hallway slowly. Loki could only watch as she walked down the hallway, unsure of anyway that he could say that would make her feel any better.

"Why is it here?" Cora questioned looking over towards the window to see some feathers on the ground. "Loki," she said suddenly sharp.

"What?" He asked feeling the urgency in her voice.

"Those are Nash's feathers," she muttered with wide eyes. Loki followed her eyes to see huge brown feathers on the ground, feeling a sudden chill in the room he finally understood the danger of being in the palace right now.

"This place is no longer safe," he said darkly before pulling Cora out of the room quickly.

"Does this mean he's back? Nash is back?" She asked with a shudder in her voice. Suddenly she could remember all his faces, his horrible, evil smirks, and tainted smiles. Everything clouded her mind like dye would taint the clean water of a river.

The situation had gone from controlled, peaceful, and happy to one of fear, urgency, and worry. Loki had to get Cora to Earth quickly, of course he was unsure whether or not the vindictive Averian would be able to follow them or not, but Earth seemed the most safe right now.

"Thor," Loki shouted into the empty hallway. Meanwhile Cora was getting dragged behind him, looking around with a tremble her eyes darted back and forth, hoping that she wouldn't catch her eyes on a certain winged man.

"Has something happened?" Thor asked running down the hallway towards them.

"We need to leave now," he growled finally picking Cora up.

"Why?" Thor asked getting serious.

"Now," Loki glared at him brother very darkly. With a nod Thor ran down the hallway, motioning for them to follow.

For Cora everything went by in a blur, the only thing she could recall was seeing Nash's laughing face in her mind, if she were to be caught by him, what would he do this time?

"Loki, Loki I'm scared," she whispered looking up at him.

They were just about ready to leave, Loki had refused to let go of Cora the entire time, for she had not stopped shaking. Seeing her so fearful by just the sight of feathers made him seethe with anger so vivid he might kill someone. Loki could only imagine what Nash had said to Cora while he was taking his time, he knew that he had nearly drowned her many times, with just that bit of information he wanted to end his life slowly.

If he could watch Nash die in the most painful way possible he would be a very happy man, but first he had to catch him, and that would something else entirely.

"Close your eyes," Loki commanded of Cora sharply.

So Cora closed her eyes and soon darkness welcomed her into a world of silence.

When she opened her eyes again there was a ceiling above her head, it reminded her of the ones they had on Earth, low enough to jump up and touch, not high like the ones in the palace.

"Hey," a voice drawled from the side of her bed, it sounded very familiar. Looking to her right slowly Cora met eyes with Tony; he was smiling down at her, a look of amusement on her face.

"Tony?" She asked jumping to her feet. It was him he was really right in front of her, it was him. With a smile she hugged him tightly and held back a few tears. "I missed you," she whimpered burying her face into his chest.

"I missed you too kiddo," he whispered patting her back gently. "The last time I saw you, you were bleeding, so this is a very big improvement," he mumbled looking down at her with a playful smile.

"So how's the tower?" She asked remembering that it had taken quite a bit of damage during the fight.

"Why don't you ask Pepper," Tony said with a smirk. "Pepper!" He shouted calling out through the door.

"Bring her out here," a strong voice called to where they were. With a shrug Tony led the way to where they were being summoned, making jokes about how Cora used to act when she had first met Pepper.

They walked into a larger room to see Pepper holding a glass of water and smiling at Cora. The tower seemed to be mostly repaired now; the balcony looked more welcoming than ever, complete with lawn chairs, and minus one creepy portal opening to another world.

"It still looks pretty cool here," Cora mused looking around at everything. Or course the bar was still there, and guess where Tony was going?

"Hey short stuff," Pepper greeted with a smile. Cora stuck her tongue out at her with an angry frown, she'd always told Pepper not to call her short, but of course who would listen to that? Cora was so much fun to pick on; just seeing her reaction to everything was great.

"Oh," she gasped softly. "Where's Loki, and Thor?" She added Thor at the end so Tony wouldn't get suspicious. Tony glanced over at her with a questioning glance before pointing towards a random room.

"They're talking to Fury," he explained simply.

A sudden stillness came about Cora, freezing in the spot she was in and looking at the window like she always did when she was sad.

"Something wrong?" Pepper asked noticing her stop.

"Did you bury Phil?" She questioned looking up at them with a stern expression on her face. Tony observed that she kept clenching and unclenching her jaw, and not once did she blink, this was what she did when she was trying not to cry. He'd seen the face many times when they were watching movies, or T.V shows, but somehow this was different, her eyes looked more mature than they ever had before.

"We did," Tony said flatly.

"That's good," she let a small smile break out onto her face. "Will you show me where?" She asked softly. Pepper looked over at Tony with a stern expression on her face.

"I'll show you right now," Tony sighed walking out towards the balcony. Pepper winked at him and smiled kindly, Cora had missed some things while she'd been gone, but that was okay, she was still Cora. That was something that everyone hoped never changed about her, as long as Cora was still herself, there was nothing to worry about, unless of course there was something else.

In moments Tony had his Iron suit on and was looking at Cora without his mask on yet.

"Come on slow poke," he said before launching away into the sky. With a laugh Cora followed him; it had been a while since she'd flown with him. Course he wasn't as fun as Nash, but he wasn't an Averian, so that part didn't matter as much.

Feeling the wind in her hair and the warmth of the sun on her back was something that she missed dearly on Asgard. The place was beautiful, everyone there was nice and treated her with respect, but it never felt right, it always felt like there was something missing from it.

For a moment all of her thoughts and worries vanished. She didn't care that there was a psycho waiting to kill her at Asgard, she didn't care that it seemed as though all her friends died, all she cared about was being in the sky with her best friend.

Watching from a window in the tower Loki sneered as he saw Tony leading Cora away from him. When they had arrived on Earth there were already people waiting for them to show up. As soon as they took a step there were agents with guns on them, Thor had laughed and clapped Loki on the back, these were his friends. They may have been friends of Thor, but in no way were they friends of Loki.

They took Cora away from him, gently so as not to wake her, and then they took him away. Now he watched as she flew away from him, feeling miserable at how far apart they were.

"She looks happy," Thor commented from behind him.

"I know," Loki muttered bitterly. He wasn't happy that Cora looked to be having so much fun here already, why didn't she have that much fun when they were together? Was he not good enough for her?

The thoughts were making him head ache, there was a question that kept pestering him. Did Cora like it better here on Earth with her friends? Of course he wasn't listening to it, because it had not even been a day yet. He would show Cora that Earth was not the place for her, that she would have to come back to Asgard and stay with him, because he needed her.

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**So I've decided to write all of the stories, because my mind is not satisfied with me only picking one. The first chapter of the Bruce/Steve story is up, as well as the first chapter of the young Loki story. As for the joker story I'm still writing the first chapter and creating a believable character to stick into it, though I can say that she will be interesting.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter, leave a review if you could be so kind. Tell me if you are excited for what's to come or not.  
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	22. Chapter 22

**As far as this chapter goes I apologize for the shortness of it, but I couldn't figure out what else to write about without having to write another thousand words. So I'm saving it for the next chapter, enjoy the reading.**

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It was a while before Cora came back; she was flying so fast Loki almost didn't see her coming until she had gone through the wall and was standing right next to him.

He looked at her like he normally did, full of affection, but it seemed that this was not something she needed right now.

She'd gone to Coulson's grave wit Tony, who had enough sense not to speak to her while she was looking sadly at her friend's final resting place. As she looked on at the lettering she remembered the day he died, how he died, and who had killed him. At first all she felt was this overwhelming feeling of grief and guilt, she was in love with the man who murdered her friend, how messed up was that? The next emotion that seemed to cloud her vision was sadness, recalling all the times when Phil had made fun of her for being short and childish. Then she would try to find something to make fun of him for, but there was never anything to go off of, so he would laugh at her, pat her on the head, and walk away with a smile on his face.

The last feeling she felt was anger. She was angry at herself for falling in love with the man that caused so many things to happen, she was mad at Loki for even killing him in the first place.

Fueled by the anger she had felt she flew back to where she knew Loki was with as much force as she could muster. What was she going to do when she got there and stared at him face to face she didn't know, but for some reason she just wanted to yell at him, as if it would make her feel better.

Catching sight of Loki Cora flew right into the room that he was in, landing and looking at him with a held back glare.

Loki noticed the slight shake in her stance and the anger in her face, which only made him wonder what was going to happen now that she was spitting angry right in front of him.

"What is it?" He asked in a stern voice. There was no reason for her to be angry at him right now, was there?

"I'm so angry at myself," she yelled at him. This took him aback slightly, she didn't yell all that much, usually she shouted playfully angry when she was dealing with her creature Bobby Boy, but this was different. The tone in which she was speaking was harsher; he could almost feel the pain in her voice. "And I'm angry at you," she said pointing at him with a frown.

"You blame me?" He questioned not really grasping what exactly they were talking about.

"Yeah," she shouted at him. Now Loki was just confused, what was she going on about now? There are many things that can make Cora angry at you, most of the time the person that made her angry doesn't even notice. So that part doesn't really matter, but generally Loki and Cora had a good relationship, no yelling at each other, Loki suspected he would win anyway.

"Whatever for?" He asked advancing on her. She backed away from him, clenching her teeth as she tried to find something to say to him to express her anger.

"For making me fall in love with you," she yelled again. By now she had the attention of Thor who was in the room next to theirs; no one knew he was there so he could just listen in on what was going on. "For trapping my heart and making it ache when I'm away from you," she said looking down harshly.

Normally Loki would have felt prideful by the fact that what she said was exactly true, it had been one of his plans to make her fall in love with him, but since she was angry with him he took it the other way.

"That is something you did on your own," he commented getting angry himself. The comment made her mouth twitch in anger; he was really bad at trying to make his girl calm, really bad. So bad, in fact, that all he ever did was make her more angry, or more sad, which was really counterproductive considering what was going on.

Tony walked by as Loki uttered that comment and let out a playful gasp. He was going to get it now, Loki was in trouble.

"You suck at this!" she screamed at him now. She didn't know what she was looking for by talking to Loki, she should have known that he would do nothing to help her, but she had been hoping she would prove herself wrong. Here was Loki; doing everything he could to not make her feel as though everything was okay.

As for Loki, he had had enough of Cora and her little tantrum. Moving quickly he slammed her against the wall and pinned her arms against the wall as well, making it so she couldn't escape nor do anything else.

"What do you want me to say!" He shouted at her. "Tell me!" He yelled. The loudness of his voice and the short distance between them made Cora freeze and stare at him a little scared, it had been a while since she heard him speak like that to her.

"You killed him," she murmured sadly. By now all her anger had been drained from her body and her words, all that was left was the sadness that came from losing a friend, the same sadness she had felt from Ara. Save that this was different, because her friend was killed by someone she loved. It wasn't really sadness for him anymore, now she felt sadness for herself, what kind of person was she that she loved her friend's murderer?

"He was in the way," Loki growled locking eyes with her. At that Cora's face faltered, had he really just said that?

Even from outside the room there was an intake of breath from both Tony and Thor, the man sure knew how to drive women away from him. Even Thor knew that his brother had gone too far, and that was saying something, for Thor was not the greatest when he spoke to other people considerately.

Loki looked down to see that Cora was just about crying now, and the anger vanished from his face. Letting go of her he didn't know what to say that could take those words back.

"I hate myself for loving you," she cried before running out of the room. Loki lurched to go after her to see Tony in the doorway blocking his path; he was glaring at him darkly.

"If you ever make her cry again, I'll kill you," he commented before going after Cora himself.

Thinking back through the conversation Loki couldn't help but think of the things he should have said, there had been so many ways he could have avoided that outcome, why didn't any of those answers come to him during the fight? Useless brain is what he had. With an angry yell Loki punched the wall, making a whole right across to the other room.

He sighed and sat down on his bed, why were women so damn confusing.

"You know Brother, you have no luck with women," Thor said looking through the hole into Loki's room. "And to be quite honest I'm not sure you deserve someone like Cora. Now that I see how you deal with her, it doesn't look like she's happy," he said loudly going over to Loki's room. He walked into the doorway and looked to see that Loki was glaring darkly at the ground.

"Leave me be," he threatened looking at Thor.

"If you don't fix this, I'll leave her here with her friends," Thor said turning back around to leave. "And we'll go back to Asgard alone," he said commandingly before leaving the man alone to his thoughts.

What Loki really had to do was beg forgiveness from Cora, but that was definitely not something he was going to do, so that was out. With a sigh he realized that he had to stop letting his anger get the best of him, for it only seemed to cause trouble.

He wouldn't let Cora stay here on Earth, he would drag her back to Asgard if he had to, he loved her.

For a day Cora sat around and looked out the window, a sure sign that something was wrong. Tony tried to talk to her, but she just mumbled a few things that he didn't understand and then turned away from him. Every time Loki tried to talk to her she walked through a wall to get away from him, so it was a definite yes that she was angry at him.

It was night time when Core came out of her room at a sprint, grabbing onto Loki and holding him tightly, burying her face into his chest he was more than a little surprised.

"What's wrong?" He asked suddenly on alert mode.

"He's here, Nash followed us here," she said with a tremble in her voice. It was true, she had gone into her room to find a note on her bed, written with horrible handwriting, probably because he lost his good hand. The note had read, _'I can follow you anywhere now,'_ of course Cora knew who it was from before she even read the name or saw the feathers on her pillow.

"What?" Loki questioned looking in the direction she had come from.

"What's going on?" Tony asked coming into the room after he heard Cora's frantic talking.

"We've been followed," Loki said before picking up Cora and walking into her room. For a moment he almost felt like thanking the random appearance of Nash, for it had eliminated the problem at hand and made Cora come rushing back to him.

"Someone's following you?" Tony questioned glancing at them as they came back into the room. He wasn't sure he approved of Cora and Loki being together yet, heck he didn't approve of it at all, but it looked like she needed him right now.

"He wants to kill Cora," Loki explained sitting down on one of the couches and holding her tightly.

"What?" He shouted instantly angry at this man that he had never seen before in his life. "Why?" He questioned bitterly.

"Because he is a sadistic man," Thor explained coming into the room after hearing everything. He hadn't really thought that Nash would follow them to Earth; of course the guy had to be pretty pissed. They did cut off his arm and everything, plus Cora was still alive, and Nash wanted her to be very dead, so he had very good reason to follow them to Earth. Thor just couldn't figure out how the man had gotten there.

"How do you know said man?" Tony questioned feeling that they were leaving out parts.

"I thought he was my friend," Cora murmured from Loki's arms.

"Oh," Tony muttered.

When it came to Cora and her friendships he knew not to question her because she thought every person she met was capable of being a great friend. Regardless of the fact that they might have been a murderer, or if they only had one eye, she was sure that they would become her friend. Very childish of her, but at the same time it was what made her such a great person.

"Well, you'll be safe here," Tony said calmly walking to the bar. "Plus there are a couple Gods here that will protect you," he shrugged dully. This was true, there were a couple Gods that were always around Cora, so she should technically always be safe, but was that really true.

With a smirk creeping across his face Loki leaned down and kissed her forehead, she was still trembling, but who wouldn't after what she had been through with this Nash guy.

"I won't leave you," Loki whispered kissing her hair gently.

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**So...What did ya think? By the way I now have all my stories figured out. I really like the Joker story and the Bruce/Steve story, it seems for now that the young Loki story will be updated not as quickly as the other two. Otherwise please leave a review, and thanks for reading.**


	23. Chapter 23

**I know you guys have been waiting for this, so no talking up here, I'll tell you everything at the bottom. Enjoy the chapter**.

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The next day Cora and Loki were inseparable, mostly because if Cora was away from him for more than twenty minutes it seemed that Nash was waiting for her, or so she said. So they stayed next to each other like peanut butter would to jelly, except without all the stickiness and soggy bread, there was none of that.

Tony was getting sick of seeing them together as he did not yet approve of Loki having his hands all over Cora, mostly because Cora was like a little sister to Tony. That meant that he was having one of those protective brother moments, and since she didn't have a father to beat down on her guy choices, he took over for that as well.

One thing Tony couldn't deny was that Cora was happy with Loki, the man seemed to know quite a bit about her, and she about him, they seemed to be happy together, save for their fight earlier. He couldn't deny the fact that Loki knew how to make Cora smile, and he knew what to say most of the time when she needed cheering up. Though he would have to say it was more of a fifty, fifty chance that Loki said the right thing.

If there was something to say about how Loki and Cora felt about the situation it would be this. Cora was scared, but there was also something in the back of her mind that screamed at her every time she thought about Nash. Loki liked it, he had Cora in his arms all day, he could kiss her, touch, make her squirm, which he liked to do for some reason, and she couldn't get away because there was a man Averian out for her.

There was also the fact that Cora needed to get away from Loki, she loved the man, she did, but she was still angry at him, and he acted like nothing had happened at all, which made her angry. If she wasn't so afraid of seeing Nash alone she wouldn't be sticking next to him, but she was, so she would stay by Loki until the screaming in her head proved too much.

At the current time Loki was pulling Cora into the bedroom, yes that sounds very naughty, but its night time you see and Loki is taking it as a chance to hold Cora while she sleeps. He'd figured this out halfway through the day and had been excited about it since then; Cora was shy when it came to anything related to that subject of the S word. So now that he had an excuse to merely cuddle with her he was taking advantage of it.

"I'm still mad at you Loki," Cora grumbled as he tugged on her arm. Loki looked over at her with a sort of innocent glance, he had hoped that she had forgotten about it, but of course she hadn't.

"Nash is here!" He said with a pale stare as he pointed towards the window. With a small whimper Cora jumped at Loki and closed her eyes, trembling a few times before she dared to look at the window. There was no one there. Looking up at Loki Cora saw him smirk down at her with a playful sort of cruel smile.

"You meanie head!" She cried pushing away from him. "I can't believe you just did that," she shouted at him with an angry voice.

"Oh come on, that was kind of funny," Loki drawled walking over to her. He reached out for her only to have her look back at him harshly and move away from him.

"No it wasn't, you scared me," she whimpered weakly. "It scared me," she murmured sitting down on the bed and shivering.

Loki hadn't expected her to freak out so horribly, though he had to admit that it felt great when she lunged for him, wanting to feel safe. He felt a little bad about it, not as much as you might think, but he did feel bad about it. So with a guilty look on his face Loki crawled up behind her on the bed and hugged her.

"Sorry," he whispered into her ear. At first she was stiff against him, but the feeling of his arms around her shoulders made her feel secure and she soon relaxed into him, to which he proceeded to pull her against his chest.

"I'm scared," she whispered again. She felt like she couldn't say the words enough, she was terrified of what would happen if Nash caught her again, the first time she had barely lived, if he got her again he would make sure that she died. Would she be able to defend herself this time?

"I know," Loki said softly, kissing her forehead lovingly. "It's okay, I won't leave you," he breathed onto her ear gently. When she squirmed in his grip Loki smiled, planting small kisses on her neck and licking it he could see her clothes her eyes and blush darkly. He loved the way she reacted to what he did to her, so shy and innocent, so his.

"I'm still mad at you, but I love you," she whispered leaning up to kiss him on the lips. It was kisses like these that Loki craved and longed for, not very often did Cora initiate the kiss, but when she did they were always better.

"I love you too," Loki murmured between a kiss.

The kiss ended when Cora pulled away and looked away from him dully, and Loki knew that loving time was over. With a sigh he let her go and she mumbled a small thank you, looking back at him with a sad sort of expression on his face Cora glanced at the bathroom in the room and then back at Loki.

"Can you leave so I can take a shower?" She questioned sweetly. Loki eyed her quizzically, she would probably be safe in the bathroom if he was right outside, so he could at least let her do that, but he wasn't going to leave.

"I'll stay in here, just go take your rain bath," he said shooing her away with his hand.

"Can you please leave the room?" She begged slightly, knowing that nothing else would work on him.

"I either stay in this room, or I could always go in the bathroom with you," he said with a smirk crawling across his face.

"Stay out here," Cora said with a blush on her face. She then turned around awkwardly before closing the door to the bathroom and leaning against it with a sigh. On the other side of the door she heard Loki laugh.

With a sigh of slight annoyance, but of mostly embarrassment Cora undressed and turned on the shower. Losing herself to her own thoughts Cora stepped into the warming water, feeling a small amount of Goosebumps appear on her arm she shivered despite the steam from the water rising around her.

This whole deal with Nash had her checking her back and looking around her as if she were a paranoid patient from a mental hospital, which is what she felt like at the moment so the analogy is perfect for her. Her mind twisted into different opinions and theories whenever she thought about Nash and her own explanations for what had happened to him. One side of her felt truly bad for him, he was not right not even in his own mind, having his mind twisted from inside of his head was sure to be the cause of that. The other side of her felt horrible for his sister, Nash had made her out to be some kind of villain a tyrant of the worst kind; he failed to see what was left after he killed her.

From what Cora understood his sister was unaware of what she could do, she'd heard about Averians who were unable to control their powers and sometimes when on a rampage and killed their family. Those were always the sad cases that passed through the orphanage, sometimes in the massacre there would be one child left, and usually it was the child that had killed everyone. They would come to the orphanage so messed up that they eventually killed themselves, the guilt of what they had done crashing down on them like an elephant.

There was something that Nash hadn't realized about his sister, Cora didn't know if it would really change anything about what he thought of her, but it was something that he needed to hear. It was just that Cora didn't want to be the one to tell him, because that would mean that she would have to see him, and she didn't even want to catch a glance of him.

A shiver found its way through her skin, making her tremble while she turned the water off and walked out of the shower. She dressed quickly, feeling the need to be close to someone as she felt as if someone was staring at her, a creepy feeling, especially when one's life is being threatened.

Stepping out into the room Cora saw that Loki was not there, instead there was a piece of paper on the pillow. With a small bit of apprehension Cora walked over to the bed and picked up the piece of paper and picked it up, unfolding it to see that there was a small message that made Cora smile.

'_I 'm sorry about earlier, I shouldn't have said what I did. I love you, I'm sorry. Do you forgive me?' _It was written in Loki's handwriting, though she had not seen much of his penmanship she knew what it looked like.

With an awkward face, and a bit of a smile Cora wrote her answer, she even drew a funny little picture, and placed the paper back down on the bed. Glancing over at the window Cora walked over to it and placed her hands against the glass, oh how she longed to fly through the buildings of the city, or fly at all for that matter. Tony and Loki had not allowed her to go outside since yesterday, even though her wings itched and she wanted to fly through the clouds badly they would not let her leave the building.

Suddenly there was a shadow that flew across the window, it made Cora jump back ever so slightly, which was good because the next thing that happened would have injured her. With a screech the glass of the window in front of her shattered inwards, the blast of whatever had collided with it made her fall backwards.

Though she had missed the full frontal blow of the glass she still managed to cut up her palms as she tried to soften her fall onto the ground. Looking up Cora saw that Nash was looking down at her with a hardened face, she wondered for a moment where the crazy man had gone, but then she looked into his eyes. There were so many emotions crammed into those two orbs she wondered how he was able to control his face in such a calm manner.

"Hello Cora," he said in the faintest whisper. His voice sounded so off it made her skin crawl, something else had happened to him while he was recovering, something dark. It was a new kind of terror that struck Cora, fear of the unknown, fear of the future, it was the type of fear that caused you to freeze up and hope you would just die right away.

"Nash," she whispered shakily. If anything the loss of arm made him look all the more menacing, the way he stood and spoke made him seem a lot older than what he had appeared to be the last time they had met.

"I got my fourth Talon," he said with a grin. When he smiled Cora cringed at the sight of him, a man that evil should not be able to look as happy as he looked.

Cora didn't say anything, she was too petrified to answer in fear that he would lash out at her. So he just looked at her with a smile on his face, it was even scarier because he looked like a normal kind of guy. The kind of man you would see driving his kids to school in the morning, or helping out at a kid's camp, certainly not the kind of guy that chased people down and killed them.

"What's this?" Nash asked walking over to the bed and picking up the paper. Cora flinched as he opened it and read it, glancing over at him to see him smile at her sickeningly. "How cute," he said in a sing song voice. "You must really love him," he laughed.

"I do," she murmured looking away from him.

"Oh, she speaks," Nash chuckled with a grin. "Can you even imagine what I have planned for you?" Now his voice was threatening, the way he looked at her suggested she shouldn't even try to guess.

Looking away Cora shivered before trying one last thing. A flash of light blinded Nash momentarily, causing him to close his eyes and look away. When the light dimmed down he saw a pair of wings disappear into the city, but this only made him smirk and laugh at her, he was hoping she would run, because then he would get to chase her.

Jumping out the window himself he teleported himself right in front of her flight path, which caused her to scream and launch off in another direction. His fourth Talon had given him to power to transport himself and others anywhere he wanted to, even other realms and galaxies. There was only one thing left on his mind that he wanted to use this gift for, killing Cora and having as much fun as he could with it.

With a sickening smile of happiness Nash chased after Cora, licking his lips against the dryness her felt, this was going to be so much fun.

Back at Tony's building Loki walked into his room to see the mess lying all across the floor. Panic and desperation filled his body as he looked for any trace of Cora, but she wasn't there, the only sign that she had been taken forcefully was the bit of blood on the floor mixed in with the glass.

"Brother!" Loki shouted loudly throughout the building. He didn't know what to do, he shouldn't have left her alone, he'd only left for a few minutes and she had disappeared.

With loud pounding steps Thor entered the room and looked around frantically to see what had happened.

"He's taken her!" He yelled angrily falling to his knees. "I left her alone, and now she's gone," he said sadly. It was a hallow feeling that he felt in his heart, this was his fault. He'd just gone to talk to Thor about what they should do; it had only been a few minutes he didn't think anything would happen to her. He should have been here!

"We'll find her," Thor said before running off to tell Tony of what had happened. Feeling anger and fight rise within him Loki reached for a paper that seemed to be crumpled on the ground. There was an angry shout from outside of the room and a smash of glass that Loki assumed was Tony, and he hadn't been wrong. Tony immediately put his suit on and rushed out to find her.

"Loki," Thor yelled from the other room. "Let's go," he shouted running off to get his hammer.

With a snarl Loki thought about how he was going to kill the Averian, perhaps he could snap off his wings before he tortured him, make him beg to be killed. Smashing the paper in his hands Loki stuffed it into a safe place in his armor before following Thor.

In response to the note he had given Cora she had responded by drawing a small bird, which seemed to signify her, and a fox, which he guessed to be himself. The bird was leaning against the fox with a happy smile on its face; even though the fox looked to be a little bored it was cute. Then in her handwriting she had written this:

'_I'm your little bird, of course I forgive you. I love you'_

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**Okay, so I'm sorry this took so terribly long, I do have to update my other stories, after all. I also had to sign up for classes, which took a while, negotiating with my friends and all that jazz. Anyway, what did you think of this chapter? Do you hate me for leaving it like this? Are you excited for the next chapter? Just tell me. Thank you for reading.**_  
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	24. Chapter 24

**Took me two dog walks, and one day of staring at my computer to write this chapter. So I hope you enjoy it.**

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It had been thirty minutes since Nash started chasing Cora, since it was night time it was a lot harder for Tony, Thor, or Loki to catch any sight of her, especially with Nash teleporting every few minutes. It really was quite unfair that Nash had gotten such a useful Talon; it was even more unfair because he was a bad guy, and bad guys shouldn't get good powers.

Cora was flying as fast as she could, trying her best to lead Nash to more deserted parts of the city, but even with her more powerful wings Nash was always right in front of her, and she was beginning to tire out tremendously. With a small cry Nash sent Cora crashing through the windows of an abandoned warehouse, causing her to scratch up her arms and back from the glass.

Laughing manically he walked towards her with a knife.

"You know," he said with a gentle heave. "After I kill you, I'm going to kill all your friends, starting with the ones you love the most," he sneered getting a smile on his face.

Cora looked at him fearfully, so far she was hoping that what she had been doing for the past few weeks or so was going to pay off, else she might not live past this.

"Or perhaps," he said catching himself in his own thoughts. "I'll keep you alive just long enough to watch them die," he laughed with an unsettling look on his face.

At first Cora looked at him petrified, but then something came over her. Tightening her jaw she stood up shakily with a glare on her face. There was something that Loki and Thor didn't know about Cora, there was something about her that she had been training ever since Nash had gotten away. She'd been trying to get it to work the whole time she had been flying around, perhaps it was the fact that she was scared, or maybe it was because she wasn't focused, but she was focused now.

Nash gave her a sort of demeaning look, but Cora didn't care. Back in Asgard she'd been training. Every night after everyone else was asleep she'd go to the garden to train, every night she worked on her new Talon. Controlling it, manipulating it, and using it, she was better at it now, or at least she could slice some trees in the garden in half with it.

"Have you been working on controlling your new Talon?" Nash laughed watching as she glared at him with intense eyes. He was completely confident in the fact that Cora would be too afraid of him to do anything by run away, any act of fighting would lead to her death anyway, he was ready for what she was going to do, what she would become.

Quite quickly Cora's eyes started to glow with an eerie white light that could only be described as luminous, there was something about her that changed, Nash didn't realize it yet but Cora had been trying to change herself into an energy source. Just as she had when she was protecting the city from the alien invasion, Nash didn't know that sometimes when she was practicing she could do it.

With a single sudden move of her arm Cora knocked the knife out of his hand with a ball of light.

"I won't let you do that," she said darkly. "Even if I have to die and take you down with me, I will never let you touch them," she cried out defensively. The feeling of power that surged through her veins seemed to also fill her with enough courage to fuel an army, Cora had grown up.

She used to be clueless when it came to fighting; she used to cower away from fights or battles, falling into the background as if she were some random rock in the scenery. Now as she took a few steps towards her enemy there was no trace of cowardice in her voice, or in her strides, she'd finally accepted the fact that she might die. Which she was okay with as long as she died in order to protect something that she loved.

With a shout Cora launched Nash back into the air with a burst of white light, throwing him into the opposite building he looked up at her with a glare before disappearing and reappearing behind her. Trying to slash at her back he found that she had created a force field around her, growling darkly he disappeared again, if he could just continue to run away he could defeat her again when her power died out.

So let's recap. Remember how Cora went Super Averian mode, and she was really badass and awesome? Yes of course you remember. Now that she's duplicated the energy that was used during that time she can use it to her advantage, but just like how the Super mode drained you of power and life, so does her Talon. Not to the extreme of possible death, but still pretty bad to the point where she could fall out of the sky.

Now, Nash knows this, so he's going to try to wait it out, but what he doesn't know is that Cora can see him when he leaves. Just as if he was wearing a tracking device there's a faint amount of light that follows him no matter where he goes, whether he teleports or flies. She can see him.

Creating a ball of energy Cora turns to the left sharply before throwing it right at Nash as he reappeared a ways behind her. With a surprised shout Nash gets launched towards the ground before he disappeared again.

This time when he reappeared he launched a car at her, which to say the very least, frightened her quite a bit. She didn't have enough time to dodge it before it smashed her into the same warehouse, breaking her shield; she could hear Nash laughing at her even from so far away.

How he had gotten a car, and had to ability throw it at her was beyond her, but he'd done it, and now she was buried beneath it.

Now you might ask, why didn't she just go through it, that's her other Talon right? Well, she couldn't. It takes a lot of skill to be able to control two Talons at the same time, and here she was struggling to control one. Usually only Averians with four or five Talons can control two or three of them at the same time, fortunately Nash does not have the greatest of Talons. So even if he could control two at the same time it wouldn't benefit him all that much.

In a blast of light the car almost seemed to disintegrate, clearing to reveal a very angry looking Cora. The way her eyes glowed in the night of the city made her look almost alien, her wings also had a faint light about them.

The fight between them went on for a few more minutes, it was apparent that both of them were beginning to tire, even Nash had a limit to how many times he could just Teleport away from danger. For perhaps the second time in her life Cora felt as if she could do anything, here she was facing her enemy, and she wasn't falling, not yet.

Appearing behind her again Cora couldn't seem to move fast enough to block his blow, but she didn't have to seeing as something flew by and took him with it. Turning to look at what had happened Cora saw Tony smash Nash into a building harshly before he launched some sort of missile at him.

Flying over next to her he let his mask come off so he could smile at her.

"How did you find me?" She asked with a happy heavy breath.

"You're like a glow stick," he said with a small smile. "I should have found you sooner," he with spoke a sad but gentle voice.

There was an aggravated yell that signaled Nash had gotten away from the blast, Cora and Tony looked at each other before he put his mask back on looked over to where he had left the crazy Averian.

"He can teleport," Cora said wiping some blood off her face.

"Well that's just not fair," Tony said before he got his with something that took him backwards. For a guy with one arm Nash fought like he had five of them.

"No," Cora shouted as she watched Nash lunge after the metal man. It was then that a hammer came out of nowhere and blew Nash out of the sky.

With a heavy sigh Cora looked down to see Thor and Loki on the ground, Loki seemed to be looking right up at her, and nothing else. Finally letting her light fade Cora flew to the ground slowly, as soon as she landed Loki was next to her, hugging her and holding onto her tightly.

"I'm fine," she said sinking to the ground slowly. Loki looked at her with a bit of a smile on his face, she was obviously not fine but she said she was anyway. A loud shout directed everyone's attention towards Nash as he fell to the ground a few feet in front of Loki, Cora, and Thor. Tony landed next to him with a glare directed down at him, stepping on one of his wings Nash still had the nerve to laugh at them.

"What's his problem?" Tony asked under his breath.

"You know she loved you right?" Cora said with a sad voice. Nash's laughter stopped abruptly to look up at Cora with a scary expression on his face. Loki looked at Cora questioningly, who was she talking about?

"No she didn't," Nash bit out harshly. He knew that she was speaking of his sister. "You're lying!" He shouted angrily.

"Why do you think she let you kill her?" she murmured as Loki edged closer to her.

For a moment Nash seemed to be lost in his own world of thoughts, going back to the day that he finally had killed his sister, she had been smiling at him. He always wondered why she had been smiling even as he had killed her.

As his body twitched with pain Nash writhed on the ground slightly, he couldn't accept it; his sister was the monster, not him. With a loud cry Nash jumped towards Cora quickly, grabbing her arm forcefully he used the last bit of his strength to teleport both of them.

In the blink of an eye they were gone, leaving Tony, Thor, and Loki staring at where Cora had been just moments before. Loki was the first one who shouted in anger, falling to his knees and hanging his head.

One second Cora was being pulled through what she did not know, and the next she was choking on water somewhere deep in the depths. Immediately there was that familiar sinking feeling followed by the dread of not being able to breathe. Nash had teleported her right into the water, knowing that she would sink, and no one would be able to find her.

Cora thrashed around frantically, gulping down water as she tried to find air that wasn't there, she was going to drown, and this time, no one would reach out and grab her. Seeing Nash swim by her she felt rage build in her stomach, gathering up what little energy she had left she shot a ray of light at him. In the blackness of night and of the water she saw him get hit before disappearing, who would have thought he had one last teleport left in him.

Bubbles surrounded where he used to be, showing the faint signs that there used to be someone there.

This left Cora by herself to sink to the depths. There was the fear of dying in her mind, but also the fear that came from being alone, for as she sank everything around her was black, this was what it was like to be truly alone. It almost felt as if someone was strangling her, save for the bubbles and the water perhaps. There was light around her, or something, she couldn't quite make anything out except for the great expanse of dark water all around her.

Her wings felt like weights tied to her back, dragging her farther and farther towards the bottom, so this was what the opposite of flying was like. This had been her greatest fear, drowning, and here she was, doing exactly what she hoped would never happen. It was painful, god was it painful, as life left her body Cora could only think of one thing.

'I love you Loki, and I'm so sorry,' her vision faded, and her body went limp as she sank even deeper into the darkness. Her body seemed to glow faintly until she sank so deeply even the light seemed to disappear.

It had only been about forty seconds before Nash was back where the rest of the group was. Appearing with a blast of light and plenty of water he crashed into the ground and lay limp amongst the rubble and puddles of water.

Immediately Loki was grabbing onto him, pulling him to his feet and glaring into his face.

"Where is she?" He shouted at him. Nash merely smiled at him before spitting water in his face, the man was nearly dead, there was nothing Loki could do to him.

A snarl escaped from his lips before he tore one of his wings off, leaving it hanging just by a bit of skin. Loki smirked darkly as the man cried out in pain.

"You are not dead yet," Loki seethed.

"She's sinking," Nash laughed, letting blood gargle and spill out of his mouth. Enraged Loki tore of the man's other wings letting it hang as he pushed him to the ground, still he did nothing but laugh, which only made Loki even angrier.

Tony had shot off as soon as he heard Nash say she was sinking, and Nash was soaking wet from something, that meant that she was still close to them, he could still make it!

At night the water looked black even as Tony flew over it Jarvis told him it would be almost impossible to find her in the water at night. He responded with an angry shout before diving into the water anyway, he couldn't lose her again, it had been so painful letting go of her the first time, and this time she would barely slip through his fingertips.

A million thought ran through his mind, if only he'd flown faster, if he'd found her seconds before, or made sure she'd gotten away he could have prevented this, if only. The blackness of the water was unsettling considering the situation he was in, even if there was a light, it wouldn't shine through.

He couldn't find her, she wasn't there, he couldn't find her! She had to be okay, she wasn't dead, she's okay!

In the end they all looked for her until sunrise, but they couldn't find her. All they found was a white feather, floating on top of the water like a leaf.

Going back to Tony's tower they all sat in their own rooms; the building had never been a quieter place. After a couple of hours of silence Tony started drinking, Pepper came up to him after his sixth glass, pleading with him to stop.

With an angry yell he threw his glass on the ground, before throwing the bottle after it, making Pepper jump slightly.

"Tony please?" She said gently.

"She's gone," he said slumping to the ground and leaning against the wall. Pepper had never seen him look so dead before, of course she was sad too, Cora had been like a little sister for her. "She's gone," he said again before banging his head into the wall.

Thor felt the pain in his heart, there would no longer be a silly angel running through the halls of the palace. The garden would be lonelier, the feasts less fun, his smiles, more empty. He never knew how much he had appreciated having Cora around until she wasn't, and knowing that she would never be around anymore.

It was heartbreaking.

In another room in the same building Loki sat against his bed, staring out the window like a dead man. His mind almost accepted the fact that she was gone, but his heart refused to believe it, she couldn't leave him, not like this.

Enraged with himself he stood up and paced around the room before throwing things around randomly. A chair here, a table, no amount of breaking things, or letting off steam would allow him to feel at ease with himself. He had done nothing while she was fighting to stay alive. What was he doing?! He'd been running around the city trying to find her like a child playing hide and seek, he'd done nothing while she was dying!

Out of breath and anger Loki leaned against the wall, reaching into his armor he pulled out the note she'd left him. Reading it a few times his face contorted into one of immeasurable sadness. Crumpling to the ground he held the note close to him, staring at the drawing of his smiling little bird.

Very silently, he wept.

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**So...What do you think?**


	25. Chapter 25

**So I haven't updated my other stories yet...been thinking about how to write this chapter. You guys didn't really think I'd killed off my character did you? I have to admit that I was tempted to say it was complete, but then most of you guys would hate me. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

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It had been a week since Cora sank; Loki refused to believe that she was dead. At first Thor just thought he was in shock, for even he felt that curious happy Cora couldn't be gone, but after he continued to search for her Thor had a different theory.

He was afraid to admit that she was dead, because if he said it, if the thought passed through his mind and off his tongue, it would be true, and he didn't want to live life without her. Tony felt very much the same as Loki, except that he would occasionally curse at Loki for being the cause of what had happened. Saying things like, _'If she had never met you, she would still be here!'_ and, _'I hope you're happy now,'_ which of course he wouldn't be. That didn't matter to Tony, he just knew that he was angry and he wanted to yell at someone. At least Pepper had gotten him to stop drinking.

Over the course of that week all the members of the Avengers came to stay at Tony's place for a little while. Bruce heard the tragedy and came to help Tony get back to normal, which was working great until he found a picture that Cora had drawn for him a few years back. Steve and Hawkeye came and lazed around for a while before they left. Hawkeye couldn't stand the fact that Loki was so close and he couldn't do anything to him, and he also felt party at fault for what happened to Cora. If he hadn't gotten mind controlled they could've escaped together.

Of course everyone was having those types of thoughts, if they'd done this differently, or that differently, they played the blame game for a little while.

Friday night Bruce, Natasha, Tony, and Thor went out drinking, Pepper was the chaperone, much to her dismay, this left Loki alone to brood in his room.

It had been a horrible week for him, everyone knows why, he missed his little bird.

For a moment Loki was just lying on his bed, he hadn't felt tired before, the whole day he hadn't wanted to do anything, as soon as he got into his room he felt as if he would fall over from exhaustion. Closing his eyes slowly he entered into a world of sleep and dreams; he didn't know that there was someone there waiting for him.

He found himself walking through the maze in the garden, a memory that he wanted to relive, but not one he wanted to see, for it hurt him so.

There was a small laugh that seemed to echo all throughout the walls of the dream. With a small stab of realization Loki realized it to be Cora's laugh, and so he darted off into the maze to find her.

**Loki.** The echoing voice called out to him gently. It was definitely Cora's voice, but where was she?

"Cora?" Loki shouted into the dream. Unlike her voice his seemed to be muffled and soft, even as he tried to scream her name so she might hear him it sounded as if he were in a different room then her. "Where are you?" He shouted desperately into the leafy walls of the maze.

**Find me.** Her answer was simple, but it left a hole in his heart. He couldn't find her, they'd searched and searched but they never found her.

There was movement from the corner of his eye, turning to catch it he saw wisps of white hair disappear behind a corner followed by another echoed laugh. Running after her Loki felt a drip on his head, looking up to see that the sky had turned cloudy and murky he shrugged it off and ran faster to catch her. It started to rain, at first it was a light rain, but then it was as if the sky was raining waves as it seemed buckets of water kept falling in front of him and behind him.

**Loki!** Her voice called out to him again, this time it sounded frantic, as if she was struggling for something.

"What? What is it? Why won't you let me see you?" He shouted getting slightly angry. He was soaking by now, and the rain had begun to fill up the dream as if they were inside a pool. The water was up to his shins, making it hard to run after the frantic voice of Cora.

**You have to find me! **She shouted at him now, but her voice was very faint. It sounded as if she was sick.

"But I can't, where are you?" He yelled rushing through the ever growing amount of water. Even the walls of the maze seemed to be leaking water.

**Loki.** This time her voice was very soft, it still echoed throughout the dream, but it was a sad sound.

Desperate now Loki trudged through the water as fast as he could, it was about up to his knees now. The light was turning dark; it almost felt as if it was hard to breath, almost like he was under water.

**I love you.** She said with a shaky hollowed breath that was very faint.

Suddenly Loki made it to the middle of the maze, where furniture seemed to have been thrown around and was now floating in the rising water. With a faint glow surrounding her body Cora law submerged in the water, body limp and unmoving.

"Cora!" Loki shouted for her. With the water now at his waist he struggled to get over to her, moving through the water like one would move through mud or thorns. Finally he got over to her, and picked her up from beneath the water, holding her in his arms he looked at her hopefully.

She didn't move, her skin paler than usual in the darkening light, it looked like she was only sleeping but Loki knew better than that, he just didn't want to admit it.

"I found you," he whispered to her gently. Putting his hand on her cheek he leaned his forehead against hers and spoke to her with a shaky sad voice. "Please," he murmured before hugging her body close to his.

She didn't move, of course she didn't, he knew why!

A cracking sound in the sky caused him to look up quickly, everywhere around him the maze was gone, it looked like there were walls of murky water all around him, pure darkness could not match the feeling of dread that came with being underwater. The walls seemed to be coming closer to him, and then they enveloped him.

Knocking the air from his lungs he lost his grip on Cora, watching the bubbles swarm around him he looked for her to find that she was gone. He tried to call out for her but now his voice was totally muffled by the water, if the dark water he could see a single feather glowing faintly above him. Feeling the strain on his lungs Loki closed his eyes tightly, the dream was breaking, he could see the light cracking in through the water.

**Find me.** Her voice said breathlessly.

He woke up with a gasp, breathing heavily he looked around the room remembering the feather; Tony had kept it by the bar to look at solemnly. Stumbling his way to the bar Loki walked in faint darkness, it was night after all, not nearly as dark as it had been in the underwater dream, but still dark.

Coming into the living area he could see something glowing faintly from the corner of his eye. Going in that direction he could see that it was the feather, sitting on the counter of the bar, glowing like one of those glow in the dark stars you would stick on your ceiling.

Picking up the feather gently Loki looked over it carefully. Had it always been glowing? Thinking back to his dream Cora had said over and over again, find me, find me.

Did that mean she was still alive?

In another room Tony was sleeping fitfully, he hadn't been sleeping well for the past week, having dreams about Cora when she was younger and they had first met. There was one dream in particular that he kept having, it was a childish memory, but there were a few words that kept resonating within the dream.

'_You're it! You're it; it's your turn to find me!' _It was Cora's voice, there was no mistake about that, but it was from when she was younger. Those were the words that kept wafting through his dreams; no matter what happened in the dream no matter what memory he was in she was always hiding from him. The only time he had actually found her she was already dead, and before he could even touch her the dream ended and he woke up feeling lost.

Whenever one of the dreams ended she always said one thing before he totally woke up.

'_Don't leave me here,'_ her voice was always a soft whisper when she said this. Tony hadn't told anyone about the dreams, not that he was selfish with them, but he didn't know what to believe yet. If Cora was still alive, if she was waiting for someone to find her, then he would look for her.

There was just one thing he didn't want. He didn't want to feel that she could be alive, he didn't want to believe that she was alright, and then if he didn't find her. All of his feelings of loss and hopelessness would be renewed, and he would be back to where he started.

Sitting up in his bed Tony was breathing heavily, it was dreams like these that made him hate going to sleep every night. Pepper had had to leave for a meeting just after she seen them back to the tower, so this left him alone in a house that contained two gods from a different realm and a green Doctor with anger issues. Not the best company one would want to have, especially since he blamed one of the Gods for his loss.

Walking to the bar shakily Tony stiffened when he saw that Loki was already there, holding the feather in his hand, which seemed to be glowing with a faint light. With painful relevance Tony realized that Cora had been glowing the same way the night she died, like a glow stick.

"She is alive," Loki said breathlessly. At first tony wasn't sure if he had said anything or not, but the way Loki looked up at him he was sure that he had spoken.

"What makes you say that?" Tony asked bitterly. He really didn't need any false hope, even though his metal heart jumped with anxious yearning to say that she was okay he wouldn't lie to himself.

"She wants to be found," he said looking back at the feather longingly. At this comment Tony froze slightly, it was just as his dreams had been telling him, Cora was reaching out to them, and she was still alive!

"Do you know where she is?" Tony asked feeling that it would be the most valuable information.

"No," Loki said sadly. He had been thinking about his dream for a long time, it had been an hour since he'd gotten up, and during that hour he deciphered his dream. "But if we don't find her soon, she really will die," he murmured thinking back to when he found her limp body.

That was what she had wanted to tell him. She was probably injured, so it would hinder her ability to communicate in dreams, hence the short messages, that meant that they would have to find her fast.

If he found her too late she would be just as she had been in his dream, lifeless. He couldn't imagine the feeling of dread and hatred he would feel towards himself if he found her too late, he didn't want to find a corpse.

He wanted his Cora. He wanted to see her blush like she did when he kissed her unexpected, he wanted to see her playful sad face when she was messing with him. He wanted to hold her in his arms and never let her go, whisper sweet things into her ear.

He would tell her over and over again, I love you, I love you, I love you, and he would never leave her alone again. Which she might not like, but he wouldn't care as long as he had her.

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**Are you happy?! She's alive, but for how long? I was a little afraid to read the reviews because I knew you guys would hate how I ended the last chapter, and most of the reviews said they hated me. :c**

**So hopefully you have regained your liking of me. I now have surround sound in my room, so when I'm writing new chapter for my stories it feels like an epic event, its pretty cool.  
**

**Thanks for reading!  
**


	26. Chapter 26

**Everyone has been waiting for this chapter, or at least everyone that is reading this story has been waiting. I'm sorry it took so long for this one to come out, I had some health issues. Send Potato Tree some get better wishes, maybe? Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

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Eighty feet below the surface of the Hudson River there is something hanging suspended in the water. In the past week it has been there no human eye has seen it, nor even imagined that something like that could be down there. For in the murky water that is the Hudson River there is a single person floating amongst the dark abyss of endless emptiness. Perhaps floating is too simple of a word to describe what can only be described and not seen.

An orb of light surrounding an angel. Peaceful is a nice word to use when describing the look on the angels face, as if she was sleeping, or feeling the kiss of her lover on her neck. It is here, near the depths of the river that she is sleeping; her wings hang limply beneath her, as she seems to wait for whatever it is that will set her free.

Suspended as if she was a puppet and someone was holding her by the strings, the glow of the orb around her acting as a shield, this girl should have died. You seem to know who she is thought, don't you?

Its Cora isn't it? She's alive, that's good isn't it? Yes, but for how long.

Something happened as she was taking her last breaths, do you remember the glow that was faintly shinning around her body? It saved her. That was the power of her second Talon, but with this great power comes something else entirely.

It may have saved her from drowning, but it also used up the last bit of her strength, and now it was taking everything she had to stay in the state that she was in. Every day that no one found her was another day closer to just sinking and disappearing into what she would never return from.

So start getting anxious, because she doesn't have very many days left.

Loki thrashed around in his bed, wrestling with yet another dream of Cora. It had been two days since he had figured out she was still alive, and still they had found nothing. No trace of her, no glance, not even another feather. Speaking of feather the one they had possession of was starting to grow dimmer, they didn't exactly know what that meant, but it had to be along the lines of Cora dying.

His dreams were getting more vivid and cruel as each day passed that they did not find her. The day before it had been a dream about when he'd found her inn Nash's house, limp and motionless. He had had to run for miles before he finally got to her, but she was already dead.

He'd gone through the same motions as before, giving her CPR, and waiting for the moment when she would cough and sputter and look up at him with love in her eyes but she never did. It felt like he tried to revive her for hours, pleading with her to wake up, even though he knew that she wouldn't. She'd left him with one breathless word.

**Hurry.**

The worst dream he had had thus far was one he did not wish to repeat but still did.

All he could remember was suddenly opening his eyes to see Cora in front of him, he tried to reach out and grab her but something prevented him from even getting close to her. As if he were in a cage of glass, he could do nothing but watch as Cora struggled to get air, gagging and swallowing water he almost wanted to turn away. This was too painful to watch.

He tried to wake, closing his eyes tightly and wishing himself awake, but the dream would not let him leave. He had to watch as his love eventually stopped struggling and lost her life, slowly sinking into the darkness of the water.

**Find me. Hurry**.

She'd left him with the same breathless words as she did every night. Though this was the first time she had said hurry, so that left the urgency fresh on his mind as he'd gone about his next day.

He had woken from that dream panting and crying out for her, it had been one of the most horrible things he had ever watched.

Tony woke up from yet another dream about Cora as well; it seemed that both of them were being plagued by that of which they could not find.

Choking on his air Tony felt much like he imagined Cora had when she was drowning, though of course it had to be very different. Struggling to grasp his words he'd finally seen something useful in his dreams.

"I know," he murmured breathing heavily.

Tony had been doing all the hard work, but since he was the only one with such a suit it was natural, it would be hard for Thor or Loki to try and get down to the depths that he traveled.

Gasping for breath Tony sat up in his bed. This dream had been different than usual, usually he and Cora were playing hide-n-seek and he was it, but this dream was different.

It started out with when he and Cora had first met, and then it escalated from there. Showing memories that they had shared together, adventures that she had tagged along on, tough he was usually against it, it even showed him when she was laughing with him on the flying ship.

The last thing it showed him was the one thing he had been waiting to see for days, ever since he had first started dreaming of her.

For the last thing he saw was Cora, limp and motionless. You would think that he wouldn't want to see her like that, but it was something he had not yet seen, for this time he could tell this was more of a vision than a dream. He could see that Cora was suspended in the water, glowing just like the feather glowed, seeming only asleep when really she was on the border of death itself.

He was there in the water with her; all he could hear was her faint voice whispering to him.

**I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. Come get me. **Every time she said she was here her voice grew a little weaker, and as Tony watched the glow of the light surrounding her got dimmer and dimmer until suddenly it went out. Then it felt as if he was being pulled forcefully through the water, he could see nothing at first, the murky water blocked out any traced of light. For a mere fraction of a second his eye caught something on the reflection of the water, it almost felt as if Cora had been trying to tell him all along. As if he could hear her voce telling him where to look for her, for he could only read one word before he had been pulled out of the dream.

Hudson.

They'd been looking in both rivers, the East River and the Hudson River, but they hadn't known which one to channel most of their time to. Finding one thing in such a vast expanse of water was pretty much impossible, especially with the two rivers involved, but now he knew. She was in the Hudson River; he didn't know why he felt so light headed with this new information, he felt as if the answer had been right in front of his the whole time.

It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, in the faint light of the moon he felt as if he could answer anything. Nothing could explain the amount of hope he felt in his chest, swelling up like a marshmallow in a microwave, he knew!

"I know where she is," he muttered closing his eyes tightly and lifting his head up towards the ceiling.

Feeling the need to rush Tony jumped from his bed and made way for his suit, it was still night time but there was something about his dream that made him feel like he could find her. He wasn't surprised when he saw that Loki was already up, it was hard for the both of them to sleep during these days. Looking at Loki with a bit of a superior air about him he spoke.

"Get your brother, and come with me," he said commandingly. Even if he did find Cora he didn't know what state she was going to be in, would he be able to just fly the sky of them out of there? Or would someone else have to intervene and help out as well?

"Find her," Loki muttered softly. "Please, I don't want to keep dreaming about her dying," he said in a weak sounding voice. No one wanted to see someone they loved dead, but to watch them die without being able to do anything, that was something else entirely.

"I don't either," Tony said under his breath as he walked about from him. He didn't want to admit it, but Loki truly did care for Cora, and he was willing to forget any past mishaps in order to accept him. It was evident he was suffering the most from this, it was like he never slept, but was always dreaming, he really did love Cora.

It took them maybe ten minutes to get ready in the dark and be on their way; Thor and Loki went about borrowing one of the ships from the docks while Tony dove straight into the water. He was going to find her if he had to search all night, because there was no way he would be able to watch her float away like she had in his dreams again.

He hadn't searched for Cora in the dark since the first night she sank, so tonight his thoughts were his own, and all he could think about was how she had been alone in this darkness when she was drowning. If you've ever been alone, and everyone has, you know the feeling of that emptiness, as if no one could ever find you in the darkness that covers you and eats you whole. If you like being underwater and feeling the weightlessness and peaceful feeling of being alone then you're half way there. Imagine being alone in the dark, but in a place where no one will ever find you, and the darkness is so heavy you can't get out of it no matter how hard you try. It's almost peaceful, but the dread of knowing you are dying, and knowing you can't say goodbye to those you love and care about, it's crushing.

Tony could only imagine how she felt, sinking and sinking, reaching out towards a surface that she would never get to, and calling out the names of those she loved in a desperate attempt that they might somehow hear her. That she had said goodbye.

Jarvis mentioned something to him, that through all scans and tests it showed nothing like a human could be floating at these depths, but Tony knew better not to believe in that. Cora was not of this world, Earthly devices would not be able to find her, and one could say Tony had gone a little crazy believing these things. But one could definitely understand why.

At first Tony turned on his lights, but then thought against it with a small inkling of hope that he would be able to find Cora in all the darkness because she was glowing, because she wanted to be found. It took him twenty minutes of just aimlessly going through the water to find something that made hope rush through him.

A single feather seemed to be suspended in the water, almost as if it was waiting for him, glowing faintly in the water he tried to touch it but his fingers went right through it. Was it even truly there? Or was it a mirage, and illusion, it almost seemed to be made of light.

Not long after the first feather there was another feather floating in the water waiting for someone to find it, then there was another, and another. The building up of hope in his chest was almost overwhelming as he felt he was getting closer and closer to where she was.

Then suddenly in front of him there was a glow, eerie and unsettling in the darkness of the water it felt out of place, as if it was a black whit sock stuck yellow sock that had snuck into a load of dark laundry. With a rush of something, perhaps excitement Tony rushed forwards, it had to be Cora, it had to.

Surging forwards Tony stopped when he saw what was in front of him, an orb of light surrounding a single form that hung suspended in the middle of it.

It was Cora!

She looked so peaceful, it was almost as if she was already dead, but he couldn't think of that, no happy thought, happy thoughts. He'd found her, and her light wasn't out yet. Even as he looked at her it seemed as if the light was dimming, like a glow stick near the end of its life.

There was one problem that kept coming back to his mind as he stared at her with speechless happiness, how was he supposed to get her to the surface?

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**Again, sorry it took so long for this one to come out. I updated my other stories and then stared at my computer for a few days trying to figure out what to write for this story. Finally it came tome, writing things is hard.**

**So, this is a bit of a cliff hanger, I'm smiling a little bit because I know that it is. What do you think?  
**

**Thanks for reading.  
**


	27. Chapter 27

**You've been waiting for this...I've been waiting to write this, lack of idea's. Finally, success as I went through many days of putting various thoughts together. Thus, this is the accumulation of idea's, all jumbled into one chapter. Enjoy.**

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Planting his hands on the sphere Tony looked up towards the surface, there wasn't a single sign that the surface was close at all, very unsettling knowing that you only have so much time to wake up someone in an orb thing. So he had to act fast and the only way he could think of getting her to the surface was to get underneath the orb and blast his way upwards until he broke through the barrier of water that was the river.

Before he started to move he stopped to admire the way the orb was glowing, there seemed to be little movements of light lines going this way and that, small bursts of brilliance that glimmered and died down every now and then. There even seemed to be a slightly thrum of light, as if it resonated with a small amount of brightness every time Cora's heart thumped. As if the barrier itself were a living thing, breathing, moving, dying.

As he started to inch upwards ever so slightly Jarvis mumbled something about energy levels, and how the chances of her still being alive were very low.

"Shut up," Tony growled pushing the power up on his blasters. They started to move faster now; the weight of the sphere and the water trying to keep them down was tremendous, almost like he was trying to move an elephant.

The orb started to glow brighter, shining as if it were the sun itself, blinding Tony to a certain extent and making him move even faster towards the surface. If something was happening to the orb right now did that mean that Cora was starting to wake up? What would happen to her if she woke up underwater in her orb? Would she still die?

Slowly Tony could feel his fingers begin to sink into the orb, as if it was turning into putty or clay, in its softening state Tony was able to finally push it above the surface of the water, breaking into the dark night air he looked for Thor and Loki. It didn't take long for him to realize that they were still on the dock because they didn't know how to get the boat to work or move for that matter. So Tony flew the orb over to the docks where they were waiting anxiously for Tony to return.

When Loki saw the orb he was immediately reminded of his dream, the dream where he had watched Cora die right in front of his eyes. For here she was, still in the orb, still running out of time, and here he was, still unable of doing anything to help her.

Setting the orb down carefully Tony had to marvel at how it began to harden again; the barrier around Cora was trying to protect her, from anything and everything that could happen while she was asleep. It was still glowing, making the night a little brighter in their small part of the world. You might be able to see its faint brightness if you were a few miles away.

"Cora!" Loki shouted touching the barrier lightly.

Light seemed to outline his hand as he placed it on the orb, shining brighter and then fading away like a fire dying slowly. Then something else happened, the light around his hand returned but this time it brought a small shiver of coldness to the touch, making him shiver slightly from the feeling.

"We found you," he mumbled pulling his hand away. It was then that the barrier seemed to reverberate with light, moving across the surface of the sphere like a shiver or a wave. For a second there seemed to be a small clear part on the barrier where his hand had been, his palm felt slightly wet as he watched the clearness get covered in light.

"Move away," Tony instructed before aiming at the sphere. Launching a series of shots and a missile at the orb there was a bright flash of brilliant light that hindered their vision and caused them to look away. When the smoke finally cleared and the light died down they looked back to see Cora move inside the sphere slightly, pulling her legs to her chest and shoving the slightest traces of pain on her face.

"You're hurting her," Thor said taking a few steps towards the orb. "Let me try," he said with a smirk on his face. He was quite confident that his hammer would do the trick, thinking about how Cora would thank him and how happy everyone would be Thor swung his hammer before Loki could yell.

"No," Loki yelled too late for Thor's hammer to stop.

The hammer stuck down on Cora's barrier without a sound, bouncing off and leaving a small crack where it had hit. The barrier erupted into a sort of hurricane of light, pulsating and breathing, shaking as if a great blizzard wind had blown in. They all watched as Cora twisted and screamed silently inside the orb, stretching her wings as far as they would go before closing herself in a cocoon of her own feathers.

"Stop it," Loki breathed threateningly. They'd finally found her, yet all they were doing was hurting her, causing her pain, making her cry.

"Obviously this shield is a bit of an extension for her, so if we hurt the shield we hurt her," Tony said letting his mask come off his face.

"So what do we do?" Thor asked looking back at the sphere.

Without a second thought Tony shot off into the night, going back towards his tower. About five minutes later he came back with a sleepy but alert looking Bruce whose eyes lit up when he saw the sphere in front of him.

"You found her," he muttered a happy expression making its way onto his face. Going up to the sphere slowly he waved his hand over it cautiously before placing his hand on it just as Loki had done.

This time the sphere reacted a little differently, shimmering and glittering as if some kid had dumped a bunch of glitter on it, pulsating with Cora's heartbeat. Bruce stared at it suddenly focused, placing his other hand on it as well he watched as the light glowed around his fingers, outlining his hand. Curious now he brought his hands together as he felt something wet on his palm, hitching his fingers in a small crack he tried to pull it in opposite directions.

Straining against the strength of the barrier he watched as the light around him faded and almost seemed to disappear as he made the hole larger and larger, water started to trickle out. Slightly surprised Bruce felt his fingers start to sink into the shield, as it turned once again into a more clay like texture. It was a lot easier to move apart now, with a whole about as big as a paper plate he stopped to look at his hands, if he were still human he would have been bleeding from the strain it put on him. Very quickly the light started to come back to that part of the sphere, and then the hole started to close, closing over itself as if it had never been opened at all.

"Well at least there's a little less water in it now," Tony said with a dull tone in his voice. Of course it didn't matter if there was less water in it or not, what he was curious about was why it reacted to you when you put your hand on it. Did it react to people that Cora knew?

"Have you tried anything else with it yet?" Bruce asked drying off his hands and turning around to meet Tony's eyes.

So they went into information mode, discussing many things as Loki and Thor just kind of sat off to the side, unsure of what to do Loki couldn't help but stare at Cora. It reminded him of when he had first started to advance on Cora and she had pulled away from him, covering herself in her wings. With a painful expression on his face Loki struck the sphere lightly, angry at himself and also angry at her.

Very abruptly the orb flashed as if lightning had struck right in front of them. Loki looked to where he had hit the shield to see that there was a small dent and cracks going everywhere, almost like an egg. Glancing to see if Cora had moved at all, making sure it didn't hurt her Loki saw that she was still in her cocoon and that she hadn't moved at all.

"What did you do?" Tony asked angrily when he saw that the orb had not stopped pulsating with light.

Letting a glare slip onto his face Loki ignored Tony and looked back at Cora, her wings had opened slightly so you could now see her face depending on what angle you were looking in at. For some reason the barrier allowed Cora's friends to harm the shield with their own hands, but not anything else, as if she was accepting the hurt because she knew them.

It was just like when he was first getting to know her, no matter how much he tried to insult her, no matter what anyone said badly about her, she always accepted it. As if she was responsible for the way they felt about her, she felt that she deserved to hurt, which was why her shield cracked when he struck it. She accepted the pain and let it scar her.

With shaky realization Loki realized that in order for him to get through to her he would have to hurt her, just as he had to show her that he loved her by kissing her, and holding her, he had to show her that he cared enough to break her from her own protection.

Biting his lip Loki started to throw punch after punch at the barrier, blinking back against the flashing light that tried to blind him and stop him.

"What are you doing?" Tony shouted running over to him and pulling him away from the barrier. "You're hurting her," he growled dragging the man harshly away.

"I know!" Loki seethed angrily. Lashing out at him Loki broke him his grip and looked up to see that his once small crack had turned into many cracks, long and jagged they started to stretch all across the surface of the sphere.

This was Cora's barrier, her feelings; because she believed that no matter how dark it was light could always shine through. That was why she always smiled when she was in front of people, even when she was sad, she only broke a couple times, and even then she tried to be strong. When people said hurtful things to her, when her friends betrayed her, she simply just smiled and tried to help them, that's just how she was.

On the inside she was scared, sometimes she was lonely, and sometimes she cried out for people to help her even as she pushed them away.

If he could break that barrier, he could save her; he could hold her and tell her that he heard her. He was finally answer her calls and help her with her loneliness, and her pain.

He looked away from Cora for a second, looking back at everyone else as they stared back at him with a little bit of pity crossing their expressions. His face contorted into that of anger, how dare they feel pity for him.

Looking back at Cora he froze for a second, she was moving now, slowly she opened her eyes, which were glowing like light bulbs. Her wings opened slightly as she hung suspended in the water, looking over at them she tried to call out, but got a mouthful of water instead.

"No!" Loki yelled remembering what would happen if he didn't get her out in time. The shield seemed to shake and quake with the new movement from within, would it only fade when she had died?

Throwing himself at the shield he began to throw punch after punch, feeling his knuckles begin to tear he saw blood and water mix together as the sphere started to leak. From his left he heard clothing rip as Bruce changed quickly into the hulk and put his hands on the shield before he started to stretch it and break it. Seeing that it wouldn't be fast enough he joined Loki in simply throwing punch after punch at the glowing barrier, refusing to let anything slow him down.

Loki couldn't help but look from Cora to the barrier, she wouldn't last very long, it didn't take long to drown, and she'd nearly drowned once. When her eyes began to close Loki wanted to cry out to her, scream at her, now that he'd found her there was this hope that rose within him, he just had to save her.

Tony and Thor seemed to be frozen watching Cora, unable to do anything Tony fell to his knees as his face contorted painfully, he couldn't do anything. Even after he'd thought of so many things he could have done to prevent this from even happening, she couldn't die, not in front of him.

With a final punch from Loki and Bruce a great cracking noise seemed to resonate throughout the whole docking area, for a moment they could hear the water lapping at the docks, and the harsh breathing coming from Loki. In that single moment Cora seemed to go limp as the water within the sphere churned and waved horribly. The cracks that stretched far across the surface of the sphere shine brightly in the night, pieces of it fell to the ground slowly, following the now steady stream of water. First there was that silence that could only be described as sullen, then followed an immense flash of light, one might describe it as the light they see when they die.

For anyone in the area of the docks it looked more like day and night had a friendly meeting that only lasted a second, flashing as bright as the sun before it was dark again.

Loki felt the water before he saw it, blinded by the light he didn't see the sphere break and open, letting all the water spill out and leave Cora lying in the middle motionless. Even with his vision being spotty and bad he lurched forwards towards where he could see something glowing slightly on the ground. Finding her body almost blindly he sank down next to her and smiled as he saw her face as his vision returned to him slowly.

Suddenly Bruce was beside them as well, no longer green, holding up his pants as he looked her over.

"She's not breathing," he muttered looking at her pale, dead looking face.

"Make her," Loki said breathlessly. Tony was beside them now as Bruce went about doing CPR, it was a very edgy minute, no one said anything as Bruce breathed air into her lungs like he was blowing up a balloon.

Finally he pulled away harshly as Cora coughed and sputtered, spewing water from her mouth and letting her eyes flutter open ever so slightly. She took a shallow breath before looking around at all of them weakly.

"Hey guys," she said letting a weak smile appear on her lips.

Everyone let out a sort of choked chuckle, relief flooding their faces as they looked at her. She was alive, they'd found her.

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**I had an evil thought, I almost ended this chapter at 'she's not breathing' but then I thought better of it. I didn't want to be mean, because I've left you with a lot of cliffhangers already, so be happy I was feeling nice.**

**She's alive! What do you think? Are you happy?  
**

**Thanks for reading.  
**


	28. Chapter 28

**So I had my first week of college, which wasn't scary at all. College did mean that I didn't get to write anything though, so sorry about that. I did finally write this though, so enjoy the chapter.**

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With a choked gasp Cora fell into the water, it happened so fast, all of a sudden there was the murky water all around her. Turning this way and that, she gulped and tried not to breathe in desperately fighting against her tired lungs. Swallowing a bunch of the water she felt the coldness of force its way down her throat, filling her stomach like smoke fills a firefighter's nose.

Struggling all the more with the water Cora looked around desperately, darkness all around her, just as it had been when she was drowning in the river. She was still there, alone, in the dark.

Had she been dreaming when Loki and everyone had saved her? Had it all been a dream?

They'd saved her, broken her barrier, taken the water from her body, held her in their arms, and told her that they loved her. Could it be possible that it had all been a dream?

Feeling herself grow limp in the water Cora's thoughts began to slow, was she really going to die now?

All of a sudden there was a small bit of light above her, breaking through the darkness a single hand reached out into the water and grabbed onto her arm. The light grew brighter and brighter until it looked as if someone was shining a light into her face, its brightness was almost foreign to her in the black water.

Suddenly feeling the water rush past her Cora opened her eyes weakly, looking up at the hand that was holding onto her so tightly. As if it wasn't bright enough the light got even brighter, even the bubbles rushing past her hseemed to ignite with glittering light, like fireflies blooming through the night sky. The hand seemed to tighten its hold on her arm, as if the person was afraid that if they let go she would be lost forever.

Finally they broke through the surface, Cora expected the hand to let go, but it didn't, still it pulled her upwards, when it did stop she was immediately enveloped by careful arms. Turning around slowly Cora saw that Loki was looking down at her with a very choked expression on his face, like a mother who finally got her son back from the war. He looked at her for another second before embracing her tightly, murmuring things she couldn't understand, it seemed that her senses were ill.

She didn't care, he was there, he'd found her and saved her. Loki was there in front of her, holding her so lovingly that she started to cry. Of course they were happy tears, he hadn't left her to sink, she was so happy.

Very faintly it sounded as if someone were calling her name, it sounded like a mere echo when it finally reached her ears. All she could make out of the words were two words.

**Wake up.**

Closing her eyes tightly Cora took a shallow breath before she opened them again. She was in a room, the light was dim at first, her eyes needed the chance to adjust before they would really be helpful for vision purposes.

"Cora?" A smooth voice said from her side. Loki was next to her, looking at her with worried eyes he leant down to be next to her on the bed. From the corner of her eye she even saw Bruce by the door, breathing a sigh of sheer relief when he saw that she was okay, and now functioning properly.

"Loki?" She mumbled feeling her throat tighten painfully. So it hadn't been a dream, they'd saved her, they'd found her.

While she was in the sphere that protected her and saved her nothing she saw seemed real. There were dreams where she would run away from Loki, and then watch herself go lifeless before he found her, a dream where she saw Tony playing hide and seek with her, but he never found her. She even dreamed of being alone, being back home with the teacher and her school mates. There was even one dream where Loki and Tony found her, blowing up the shield like it was made of paper, and then taking her home. Of course it hadn't been real. For days her mind played so many memories and scenes for her she wasn't sure what was real anymore, had she really been at the bottom of a river?

So when they rescued her she was happy, but somewhere in the back of her mind she felt like it might be a dream, that perhaps her mind was just trying to make her happy as the life in her body started to leave her. But it wasn't a dream, for here, right in front of her, right there! Loki was looking at her with such love in his eyes that all thoughts of a dream vanished from her mind, leaving only her own feelings to bring her back to reality.

"Are you okay?" Loki questioned touching her face as gently as one would touch a baby. Lightly he brushed away the tears that were on her cheeks.

"Yes," she said letting new tears fill her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" He asked painfully. He'd been at her side ever since they'd gotten her from the sphere, for a moment it sounded as if she was okay, laughing as she said hello to them. But then her body gave in to its weakness and she fell asleep for a few days. At first Tony and Loki started to fret, even Thor looked anxious to see her awake, but Bruce assured them she was fine.

He told them of how she had been saving the last bit of her life, the last bit of willpower, to wait for them. In other words while she was going off to visit them in dreams, and keeping the shield up, she was killing herself at the same time, none of them had been expecting that.

Her body was still for a few days, and then just today she had started to grab at her neck, contorting her body as if she was struggling for air, and restricting her lungs from breathing. It was terrifying to watch, as if she were a puppet and someone was playing with her strings, laughing as she choked herself.

Loki had started to shout out her name, attracting the attention of Thor who ran to get Bruce right away, for a while she just struggled, then her attempts got weaker, it looked as if she was convulsing from something. When Bruce got to the room he explained that she was stuck in a dream that they might not be able to wake her from.

After he said that she began to pale, as if she was dying in her dream. Loki could do nothing but shout her name and watch as tears began to slide down her cheeks, she couldn't be dying, not after they had saved her, he wouldn't let her.

"Wake up!" He'd shouted slamming his fist into the wall, and that was when her eyes snapped open.

Now he watched as she reached up towards her face slowly and touched her cheek in small wonder, she had to admit that it was weird to cry in her dreams and wake up to find her cheeks wet with the same tears.

"Are you okay?" He asked her again. She said she was fine but he wasn't so sure, he just didn't want anything to ever happen to her again. She looked up at him with a painful expression on her face before launching her arms around him, letting the tears escape her eyes she cried softly.

"I'm so happy you found me," she whispered wanted to hold onto him forever. "I love you," she murmured into his chest. "I thought I was going to die," she whimpered clenching his clothes into her hands.

Loki tightened his arms around her; Bruce had gotten the hint to leave a while ago and therefore left the room, leaving them alone.

"I was so scared," Loki murmured into her hair. He pulled her away from him to look into her eyes, she looked at him a little baffled as to how to respond. "I was so afraid that I wouldn't get there in time, that you would be lifeless as I held you in my arms," he said sternly. He then pulled her back into him and hugged her tightly.

The dream was almost identical to the one from that one night on the flying ship. Both times she had been drowning, both times she had been alone, and both times Loki had saved her.

"I love you," he whispered into her ear. "I love you, I love you," he repeated over and over. He wanted her to know that he would do anything for her. Taking her head in his hands he kissed her lovingly, feeling the tears on her cheeks he held her close to him.

Cora kissed him back just as lovingly, they were finally back together.

=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=3=

A week went by before it was time to go back to Asgard again, Tony, Bruce, Pepper, Steve, and Hawkeye were there to see them off, Natasha was on a mission.

In that week Tony and Cora spent a lot of time together, almost as much as Loki and Cora spent together, because it had been decided that Cora was not going to be coming back to Earth for a while now. After almost getting killed it seemed that it was too dangerous, who knows what other enemies Cora had gotten over the years.

At first Tony was against the idea, he didn't want to see her go with the chance that they might never see each other again, he didn't want her to be with Loki for the rest of her life. Of course Cora understood, she understood that it was hard to let something go knowing that you might never see them again. Though she did promise to come back to Earth, because she would miss her big brother.

Tony had replied with the fact that Asgard had proved to be just as dangerous as Earth had been, but Thor assured him that he would always watch over the girl, because he finally realized how much everyone treasured her so much.

Cora punched Hawkeye in the face, it was something she had promised she would do a long time ago that she had never done. He let her do it.

After a week of talking and spending as much time with everyone as she could it was time to go, Loki bid everyone farewell, not that anyone really cared, no one much liked him still. Thor received a few hand slaps and comments, since he was a God he was more than likely to be back on Earth the next time it needed his help. Plus more people liked him as opposed to Loki, who they definitely did not like as much, since he was taking Cora away.

"You better come back here, I don't want to go sane while you're gone," Tony said holding back some questionable emotions. Cora looked at him fondly, twisting her face into an expression of sadness and happiness at the same time.

"You'll never be sane," she laughed going up to him.

"I know, but, I'm going to miss you," he commented dropping his voice so no one else would hear.

Feeling her eyes tear up overwhelmingly Cora jumped at Tony, hugging him as he hugged her back.

"I won't ever stop missing you," she murmured letting a tear roll down her cheek. Tony kissed her cheek while glaring at Loki the whole time. They'd spoken earlier about Cora, he'd let her go on one condition.

'_Don't you ever hurt her.'_

Loki had smiled much to Tony's irritation, only to reply that if he ever did hurt her, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself, and therefore he could never imagine ever hurting her.

"You should go," Tony muttered letting her go before he lost himself. Cora kissed his cheek lovingly before moving down the line of people. Pepper started crying softly, Cora had been like a little sister to her, or even a daughter for that matter, she felt responsible for the Averian. Since the rest of them were all guys there were no tears shed, but none of them were happy to see her go.

As she stood away from them, Loki grabbed onto her hand, giving her a small nod of the head as she looked about ready to crumble.

It was painful watching her go, wordlessly they all started to glow before light enveloped them and they were gone, leaving the room dark in their absence.

Everyone seemed to go off in their own directions, leaving Tony to stare at the spot where she had been standing, letting his face change into one of painful sadness he looked down at the feather clenched in his hands.

"Goodbye Kiddo," he mumbled before turning around and walking away.

* * *

**So this is probably the last full chapter, the next one will probably be an epilogue, and then this happy story will be over.  
**

**From past comments I have grown proud of you readers, I bet if someone asked you what an Averian was you could tell them! Which is pretty cool, especially since it's all made up.  
**

**So I think it's finally time to end our journey with Cora, what do you think?  
**

**Thank you for reading!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Last chapter! I know it took a long time, college and other junk, I had to think of how I could end it, and I think you guys will like this ending. I had to lock myself in my room, saying that I wouldn't come out until I finished, so here it is. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Epilogue**

Walking down the hall briskly Loki had one destination in mind, Cora's room. It had been about a month since their little trip to Earth, and all the fun stuff that had happened there. Through all the time that she had been back Cora seemed a little distant, as if she was avoiding him for some reason, quite frankly, it was making him angry. She even talked to the maids and servants more than she talked to him, and sometimes they would laugh and look at him. This would cause him to huff bitterly and walk away, feeling a bit left out and lonesome.

He didn't know what Cora was thinking anymore, before it was like he knew that she was curious, or embarrassed, but now he knew nothing of what she was doing.

So now he was going to her room to, more or less, attack her in a loving forceful way. He just wanted her to look at him, oh how he wanted to kiss her and hold her, and do other things to her, but with her avoiding him all the time he could do nothing.

With a growl building in his throat Loki turned the corner that led to her room, ready to break down the door he saw a note stuck to the strong wood. It had Cora's handwriting on it, and even a little picture of an apple.

'_Where do you get food?'_ It read.

Of course the logical answer was the kitchen, which Loki only thought of after he pictured the dining table in his mind.

'_Go there now.'_ A smiley face followed this comment.

Curious now, Loki kept the note in his hand as he meandered towards the kitchen, wondering what his little bird was doing sending him across the palace. Did she want him to get something for her? Or was this just another one of her little games?

Once he was in the kitchen Loki looked for anything that looked like something Cora might leave for him to find. Finally his eyes caught sight of another piece of paper that had a picture on it this time. Not anything big or fancy, just a picture of a fountain, a fountain that looked very familiar.

With sudden realization Loki ran towards the garden, keeping his thoughts centered on what Cora could possibly be doing making him run all over the halls and rooms of the palace. There had been no other reason for Loki to go into the kitchen besides to get the next note, she was just leading him on a wild goose chase for fun.

Getting to the fountain soon Loki panted slightly, whatever she was leading him to he wanted to get there fast, because more than likely she would be there, and then he could _'attack'_ her.

She wasn't there. He looked around the fountain, he checked to see if she got lost in the maze, or if she was sleeping in some obscene place, but she wasn't. Twisting his face into one of slight anger Loki almost ripped the note in half when he found in on one of the benches. Faintly he was reminded of their time in the garden together, how badly Cora had gotten lost in the maze, the feeling of her body against his. The memory also brought those awful dreams back to the surface of his mind, making him frown and look at what the paper said.

'_Go find your brother.'_ It read, there was even a small cartoon drawing of Thor on the paper, just in case he didn't know who his brother was.

It wasn't very hard to find Thor, he was stomping around and talking about his battle on Earth and how he had helped rescue Cora, everyone in the palace was sick of the story now.

"Hello brother," Thor greeted. Loki simply ignored him and looked around the man, was there something near him that had a note on it?

"Have you seen Cora today?" Loki questioned still glancing around.

"She spoke to me briefly about the weather before running off in that direction." He then turned to point towards in which was when Loki saw a piece of paper stuck to Thor's back. This made Loki smile slightly, he hadn't even noticed the whole time he was walking around, and no one had told him either.

"Thank you," he said before grabbing the note and walking off in the direction Thor had pointed out.

Thor said something after him but Loki didn't care at all, he was reading the note.

'_Where do you sleep at night?' _A small picture of a bed was next to the question.

So of course he went straight towards his room, was she in his room? What for? For a moment he had a passing thought that she might have messed up his room just to make him angry, but there was really no reason for her to do that.

At the door to his room there was another note attached to the wood, not that he read it.

"Cora," he called through the door. "You better be in here," he said darkly before opening the door.

What he saw both baffled and excited him greatly.

Cora was on his bed, wearing nothing but a very skimpy piece of white clothing, something that Loki never thought he would ever see her in. He could see whispers of the skin beneath the thin fabric of her clothing, and her wings pulled tightly against her back, she was nothing less of sexy. Cora was looking at him with a sort of embarrassed but determined look on her face; the shyness she portrayed made Loki want her all the more.

Biting his lip he let his eyes travel all over her body, already imagining what he would do with her.

Standing up slowly Cora walked up to him; trying not to let a blush dust across her face she kissed him sweetly and seductively.

"Loki," she whispered his name.

That was all he needed. Grabbing her around the waist Loki threw her backwards onto the bed and more or less pounced on her, she didn't even have time to gasp before he was kissing her roughly.

He didn't care about any of his past worries now, where had she been the last month, why she had been avoiding him, he didn't care at all.

If Cora were to answer his silent questions she would say that the past month was spent talking to the maids of the palace. Talking to them about how she should go about making love, since she was nothing but nervous about it. The maids giggled and told her everything they knew, first on the list was ignore him for a while, make him want it, and second was to wear something skimpy. There were many other tips and ideas after that, but let's not waste time writing them all out. She had been psyching herself up for this.

Even now she was still nervous about everything, but, he'd saved her, and found her. She loved him.

Now as Loki's hands began to travel down her body Cora couldn't help but blush, he was touching her so intimately and roughly at the same time, it made her excited. Quite sneakily Loki snuck his hand beneath her clothing making Cora gasp; she was completely naked under it which made Loki smirk against her neck.

This was it, she was doing this for Loki, slightly because she wanted it as well, but she wasn't going to tell anyone that, even though the maids already knew. Thinking back Cora would have never guessed that she would fall in love, or want to spend the rest of her life with anyone, but now as she embraced the man she loved. There was nothing better than this in the world.

"I love you," Loki whispered looking at her fondly. That she was doing this for him made him want to smother her with affection; she would always be his, forever.

"I love you too."

* * *

**The End**

* * *

**All those feels...**

**So that is the end of Cheerfully Mischievous. Thank you to everyone who read this, I love you guys.  
**

**There were a handful of you that wanted me to continue this story, perhaps have a sequel, I don't think there will be one. I want to relish in the fact that this is the first story I have ever finished, plus I don't want to kill this story by trying to force out new ideas.  
**

**Now there is a chance that I will have random ideas somewhere down the road that could lead to a short sequel, but I just can't promise anything.  
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**I do have a new idea for a story that would be Captain America/OC/Loki, so if you guys want to stick around that one might catch your fancy.  
**

**Otherwise, thank you again for sticking with me the whole time, it means a lot.  
**


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